THE LIBRARY
OF
THE UNIVERSITY
OF CALIFORNIA
LOS ANGELES
^^
17/1
THE LIFE & LETTERS
OF R. S. HAWKER
BOOKS BY R. S. HAWKER
In special bindings designed from old oak carv-
ings in the Churches of Morwenstow and
Welcombe.
CORNISH BALLADS
AND OTHER POEMS
Edited with an Introduction by C. E. BYLES.
With numerous Illustrations by J, LEY
PETHYBRIDGE and others.
Crown 8vo., 5s. net.
FOOTPRINTS OF FORMER
MEN IN FAR CORNWALL
Edited with an Introduction by C. E. BYLES.
With numerous Illustrations by J. LEY
PETHYBRIDGE.
Crown 8vo., 5s. net.
:\ . i;. ^. 1 1 \\\ Is 1 i;
THE LIFE AND
LETTERS OF
R. S. HAWKER
(SOMETIME VICAR OF MORWENSTOW)
BY HIS SON-IN-LAW, C. E. BYLES, WITH
TWO SKETCHES BY THE EARL OF
CARLISLE, LITHOGRAPHS BY J. LEY
PETHYBRIDGE, AND REPRODUCTIONS
FROM PORTRAITS, PHOTOGRAPHS, ETC.
WHAT A LIFE MINE WOULD
BE IF IT WERE ALL WRITTEN
AND PUBLISHED IN A BOOK."
fFrom a Letter of R. S. Hazvier,
tvritteit June 25/A, 1865^.
JOHN LANE, THE BODLEY HEAD
LONDON AND NEW YORK, MDCCCCV
PRlNTEn BY W. H. WHITE AND SON
THE ABBEY PRESS, EDINBURGH
URL
To R. S. H.
/ haiVd thee poet in the days before
A dearer bond had knit my heart to thee,
Loving thee then for that thou loved' st the sea,
And wast a dweller by the storm-beat shore
Where stray'd my steps of old, and ocean's roar
Brought news from dreamland, ere the world's decree
Set my unwilling feet, no longer free.
In toilsome paths, and exile evermore.
But for the dear sake of thy child, who late
Her plighted hand forever laid in mine.
Now shall my love confess the name of son,
O faithful seeker of the Cup Divine,
Albeit, long since, beyond the Heavenly Gate,
Thou hast achiev'd thy Quest on earth begun.
C. E. B.
"The Mind is separable in its attributes and exist-
ence from the Body. Our thoughts survive ourselves.
Our words awaken living echoes when we have been
long dead. Our hopes and fears, our schemes and
visions receive a vivid existence after we are dust:
for they are revived and accomplished by other men."
(Hawker's Note-books.)
"Posthumous fame is of little value. It is like a
favourable wind afte^ wreck."
(Hawker's Note-books.)
PREFACE
The materials for this book have been collected from a
great many sources, and consist chiefly of letters and
manuscripts of Hawker's, preserved by the various
friends to whom they were addressed. He spent a
great deal of his time in correspondence, which, indeed,
took the place of social intercourse in a remote and solitary
life. It is very remarkable to find with what care and
affection these records of his many friendships, some of
them dating as far back as 1832, have been treasured up
so many years after his death.
An intimate friend of his, the late Mr. William Maskell,
writing in 1876, says: —
" Mr Hawker was an admirable correspondent : his letters were
full of curious illustrations of the subject he was writing about,
often iilled with anecdote and graphic in description. Nor was
there any want of satire about most people whom he had lately
seen or come in contact with. To publish his correspondence
after he became Vicar of Morwenstow, could it be collected from
the different quarters where possibly portions still exist, would,
even at the present time, set the whole neighbourhood in a blaze.
Many and many a Scandal — supposed to have perished long ago
by being buried — is there (shall we say ?) embalmed. Few,
again, to whom he was accustomed to write, can have forgotten
the warm tone of his thick, yellow-tinted paper, and the thin red
lines (all prepared for his own use), and the bold, firm hand-
writing, and his peculiar seals — the one, the mystic fish ; the
other, the pentacle of Solomon."
vii
viii PREFACE
It will be seen, therefore, that the task of editing these
letters has been somewhat delicate.
In addition to letter-writing, he always kept at hand on
his desk sheets of paper stitched together into little books
for memoranda. In these he jotted down continually ideas
as they occurred to him in the course of his daily reading.
Hundreds of these little stitched brochures are in existence,
forming a mine of odd notions and recondite information.
It is not always possible to determine what is his own and
what is quoted, particularly as his method of quotation
was not to transcribe exactly, but to put the " pith " (as' he
termed it) of an author's sentence into his own words.
Hawker cherished the idea that these memoranda might
some day be published as * Fragments of a Broken Mind,'
His ' Footprints of Former Men in Far Cornwall/
(hereafter referred to as * Footprints ') contains a good
deal of autobiography, but the necessity of compression
has made it impossible to quote all these passages.
The various works dealing with Hawker must also be
mentioned. Chief among these are the two memoirs, ' The
Vicar of Morwenstow,' by the Rev. S. Baring-Gould, and
' Memorials of the late Robert Stephen Hawker,' by the
late Dr. F. G. Lee,^ each published in 1876, a few months
after Hawker's death. Both, if I may say so, were con-
' Dr Lee was, like Hawker, a man of original stamp and strong
personality. Born in 1832, he won the Newdigate at Oxford in^i854.
From 1859 to 1864 he lived at Aberdeen, where he founded the Church ot
St, Mary the Virgin. In 1867 he became Vicar of All Saints, Lambeth, and
worked there for thirty-two years. He died in 1902. He was a man of
many-sided interests, poet, antiquary, controversialist, in politics a High
Tory, and a prolific writer on ecclesiastical subjects. He was one of the
founders of the Association for the Promotion of the Unity of Christendom,
the English Church Union, and the Order of Corporate Re-Union, and was
said to have been one of the three Bishops mysteriously consecrated at sea in
connection with the last-named body. About a month before his death he was,
received into the Roman Catholic Church.
PREFACE ix
ceived in a partisan spirit ; in fact, it appears that there
was a kind of race for priority of publication, Mr. Baring-
Gould came in first, and has succeeded in maintaining
that advantage. A new and revised edition of his book
was called for in 1 876, and another new and revised edition
in 1 899. Dr. Lee's volume has never been republished.
Mr. Baring-Gould's book has long held the field as the
standard biography of Hawker. As a character-sketch and
a jest-book, it is clever and amusing, but as a biography it is
not altogether satisfactory. In the first place, the author
did not think it necessary to ask or obtain the consent of
Mrs. Hawker to its publication, and he thus cut himself off
from the main source of his materials. In a letter which
appeared in the Athenceum, of 8 April 1876, she said of
the book : "It is full of mis-statements, and written by one
whose personal knowledge of Mr. Hawker was scarcely
that of a mere acquaintance. I may say also that he wrote
the memoir without the least reference to myself, or the
slightest regard for any feeling or wish I might have, or
how much additional sorrow it might cause me." Having
thus totally ignored her, Mr. Baring-Gould had some ground
for writing in his first edition, " not one ungenerous or unkind
word would I speak to wound a widow's sacred feelings ! "
Presumably he thought that Mrs. Hawker could tell him
nothing to his purpose. But it is not for me to explain
his motives, nor do I wish to discuss his account of her
action in regard to Hawker's death-bed change of creed.
On such a vexed question he was, I suppose, entitled to
his opinion, and I should be the last to provoke contro-
versy on that subject. The only question I raise is this.
Is it a practice to be generally recommended, that, within
six months of a man's death, a comparative stranger should
rush in with an incomplete memoir without consulting those
nearest and dearest to the dead ?
PREFACE
While disregarding Mrs. Hawker, however, Mr. Baring-
Gould did not hesitate to borrow largely from Hawker's
published works, the copyright in which formed no incon-
siderable part of her worldly possessions. In some cases,
too, these literary debts are accorded very scanty acknow-
ledgment. For instance, his account of the smuggler
'Cruel Coppinger,' is, with some abbreviation, an almost
word-for-word transcript from Hawker's ' Footprints,' with-
out any inverted commas, or change of type, a footnote at
the end of several pages being the only indication of
borrowing. Readers unacquainted with ' Footprints '
might reasonably suppose that Mr. Baring-Gould has told
the story in his own words.
The book was severely criticised by some of Hawker's
most intimate friends ; e.g., by the late Mr. William Maskell,^
in the Athen(Bum, and the late Mr. Christopher Harris,^ of
Hayne, in John Bull. A still more unprejudiced critic, a
Wesleyan farmer in Morwenstow, Mr. W. G. Harris, who
had known the Vicar for forty years, wrote in a local paper
in I '^'j6 : " I am really surprised to see such a book offered
to the public as being in any way an authentic record of
the life of the late Rev. R. S. Hawker." One inaccur-
acy, though not of any importance in itself, illustrates
Mr. Baring-Gould's peculiar methods. " There were no
seven black men," writes the farmer, " buried from the
Avonmore [a vessel wrecked at Morwenstow], in 1869."
' Mr. Maskell, whose name will appear often in these pages, is perhaps
best remembered by the collection of ancient Liturgies in the British Museum
that bears his name. His ' Monumenta Ritualia EcclesiEE Anglicanse' was
published in 1846. He was examining chaplain to Bishop Phillpotts, and
in that capacity examined the famous Mr. Gorham. In 1850 he joined the
Church of Rome. In 1856 he bought and rebuilt the Castle at Bude, where
he continued to reside, becoming a magistrate and deputy-lieutenant for
Cornwall. He died at Penzance in 1890, aged 76.
* Mr. Christopher Harris was the descendant of an ancient Cornish family.
An ancestor of his is mentioned in Hawker's poem ' Sir Beville.'
PREFACE xi
Turning this up in Mr, Baring-Gould's book, I found the
fact so stated, however, in one of Hawker's own letters,
thus — " The other seven (blacks) were drowned among my
rocks .... Seven corpses came ashore for burial one by
one. Graves already dug, and shrouds prepared : but more
yet." This puzzled me, until, in collecting materials for
the present volume, I was supplied with a copy of Hawker's
letter, and therewith a solution of the mystery. The
words he wrote were these : — " The other 7 (Blacks) were
drowned among my rocks .... 7 corpses to come ashore
for burial as they come one by one for burial. Graves
already dug and shrouds prepared, but none yet."
The Athen(zum, in noticing recently the new edition of
' Footprints,' warned me to " beware of Mr. Baring-Gould's
biography." I have followed this advice by not regarding
it as an authority, without corroboration. Though neces-
sarily, in many matters, covering the same ground, I have
always sought the information from independent sources,
except in the case of a few of Hawker's letters, the right of
using which belongs in the first instance to his family. It
is only fair to add that the book has done a great deal to
extend Hawker's popularity. To overlook that fact would
be ungrateful.
Dr. Lee's book is almost entirely confined to religious
controversy. It is partly a defence of Hawker's position,
and partly an attack on Liberalism in the Church of
England. Naturally, it was never popular, for theological
argument is " caviare to the general." As a memoir it is
sympathetic and sincere, and reliable as far as it goes. But
it is devoid of humour ; a fatal defect in any estimate of
Hawker. Dr. Lee's controversial style is very pugnacious.
" He always makes me think," writes Mrs. Hawker, " of an
expression once applied to my husband, that he made use
of ' such tremendous epithets.' "
xii PREFACE
In addition to these memoirs, Mr. William Maskell issued
privately in pamphlet form some reminiscences of Hawker,
amplified from his two reviews of Mr. Baring-Gould's book
in the Athenceum.
Hawker has also been the subject of numerous essays,
articles, reviews, and obituary notices, containing amongst
them some biographical grain along with a vast amount of
chaff. The best article upon him, as a compendium of
facts, is that by Mr. W. P. Courtney in the * Dictionary of
National Biography.' To that and to the ' Bibliotheca
Cornubiensis ' (Boase and Courtney), and to Mr. Courtney's
personal kindness, I am considerably indebted.
The task of collecting these materials has been shared by
many fellow-labourers. To record a life which covered
three-fourths of the nineteenth century, and ended twenty-
eight years ago, has involved a large amount of correspon-
dence, and on all sides applications for letters and reminis-
cences have met with a kind and willing response. The
result has been that nearly a thousand of Hawker's letters
have been recovered. Only a part of the material available
has been used : in fact, the book as originally compiled
would have filled several volumes. Its present form is in
the nature of a residuum, after several processes of elimina-
tion.
In arranging the letters I have preferred to adhere in the
main to chronological order, rather than to make extracts
according to subject, and work them up into chapters all
through the book. There is something to be said for both
methods. It is true that Hawker's life was uneventful, and
does not lend itself to continuous narrative, consequently
letter often follows letter without any connecting links.
Yet if we depart from the order of date, we lose the
sequence of his mental development. The interest lies in
his personality. It is a story of ideas rather than events,
PREFACE xiii
and can therefore best be told in his own words. If we
disintegrate the letters, placing one sentence under one
head and the next under another, we miss the variableness
of his mood, the sudden changes " from grave to gay, from
lively to severe," from mystic legend and vision to
humourous details of his daily life. The whole charm
of his letters lies in this versatility of temper. Rightly or
wrongly, I have acted on the principle that letters are the
best possible form of biography, and that, where these are
plentiful, the main duty of a biographer is to dis-
appear. Those who wish to connect references to any
particular subject will find the means of doing so in
the index. A word as to punctuation. Hawker uses
hardly any stops in his letters, and to preserve their char-
acter of spontaneity I have inserted as few as possible.
It would be impossible to enumerate all those who have
helped me, either by the loan of MSS., or in other ways.
But in particular I must thank the following: — Mrs. Waddon
Martyn and Mr. N. H. Lawrence Martyn, of Tonacombe
Manor, Morwenstow ; the present Vicar of Morwenstow,
the Rev. John Tagert, and Miss Tagert ; Miss Rowe ; Mrs.
J. G. Godwin; Miss Louisa Twining; Miss Mohun
Harris ; Sir Thomas Acland ; the late Colonel W. S.
Hawker ; the Rev. Robert Hawker Kingdon ; Mr, J.
Somers James ; Mr. C. Hawker Dinham ; the Rev. Canon
Thynne ; Dr. Amos Beardsley ; Mr. Humphrey Basker-
ville; Mr. G. H. Gurney ; Dr. T. N. Brushfield ; Mr.
Wood, Librarian of Pembroke College, Oxford ; Mr.
Alfred Maskell ; Mr. R. A. Mountjoy ; Mr, John Cann ;
Mr. J. C. Valentine ; the Rev. Preby. Granville ; the
Rev. Canon Bone ; the Rev. W. lago ; the Rev. N.
Vickers ; the Rev. LI. W. Bevan ; the Rev. Maitland
Kelly; Major Dudley Mills; Mr. John D. Enys ; Mr.
Herbert Cowie ; Mr. R. Hawker Preston ; Alderman
xiv PREFACE
J. W. Narravvay ; Dr. Owen Pritchard ; the Rev. W. G.
Harris ; the Rev. R, A. Morris ; Mrs. J. Tarratt ;
Mr. T. Waddington ; Mr. Richard Allin ; the Rev. J. A.
Rawlins; the Rev. J. F. Chanter; the Rev. W. H.
Thornton ; Mr. John Shelly.
I must also acknowledge courteous letters from Miss
Alice Longfellow, Lord Tennyson, the Rev. Stephen Glad-
stone, and Sir Francis Jeune, in reference to Hawker's
relations with their fathers ; from Mrs. J. H, Shorthouse,
regarding her late husband's connection with the Hawkers
of Somerset ; from Cardinal Newman's executor, the Rev.
William P. Neville, and the Rev. W. J. B. Richards, one
of the executors of Cardinal Manning, with permission
to make use of letters.
The frontispiece and the portrait facing p. 142 are from
sketches made in July 1863 by the Earl of Carlisle (then
Mr. George Howard), who, at the request of Canon Thynne,
has kindly lent the originals for reproduction. The coloured
sketch is of unique interest, as it enables us to see the Vicar
" in his habit as he lived." A copy of the pencil sketch,
by another hand, formed the frontispiece to the 1899
edition of Hawker's poems. An account of the sketching
of these portraits will be found in Hawker's letters, on pp.
423 and 428. The portrait of Sir Thomas Acland, facing
p. 396, has been included by kind permission of the Rt.
Hon. A. H. Dyke Acland.
I should like to say a word here of the kindness shown
by the inhabitants of Morwenstow^ and Wellcombe. To
knock at the door af a cottage or farmhouse, and mention
the name of their former Vicar, " Passon Hawker," as they
call him, is a sure passport to their true Cornish courtesy
and hospitality. It is in the hearts of his old, his " mossy "
parishioners, as he used to call them, that his best title to
honour must be sought ; and their memories and traditions
PREFACE XV
are not the least valuable records of his life. ^ It is signifi-
cant, too, that those Dissenters, against whom he raged
continually, have ever been among the foremost in paying
respect to his memory. " His bark," they will tell you
with a smile, " was considerably worse than his bite."
Mr. Frederic Chapman, Mr. R. Pearse Chope, and Mr.
Richard Upton have kindly read my manuscript, and
made valuable suggestions.
Nor must I omit to mention Mr. John Lane, who is a
native of North Devon and spent his youth in the adjoin-
ing parish of Hartland. Mr. Hawker's preaching, personal
appearance, charm of manner and voice, are among Mr.
Lane's earliest recollections. This, and the fact that his
grandmother (Mary Isabella Hobbs, of Whalesborough,
near Bude) and the first Mrs. Hawker had been school-
fellows, gave Mr. Lane an early interest in the Vicar of
Morwenstow, and he has taken an enthusiastic part in
collecting materials for the book and supervising its pre-
paration. If any readers of this book possess further
letters or manuscripts of Hawker's, or can otherwise throw
fresh light upon his life, I should be much obliged if they
would kindly communicate with me, through the publisher.
C. E. BYLES.
Chisvvick. I Jan. 1905.
P.S. — At the last moment, when too late to correct the
passage, I find that I have made a mistake in stating (on
page 10) that Hawker was at Cheltenham College. I
' Just before sending my book to press, I have received an example of such
lingering memories from an unlikely quarter, an American insurance paper I
The late Mr. J. Harman Ashley, editor of T^e Insurance Advocate (Philadelphia
and New York), in the literary column of his issue for Oct. 1901 says : — " The
writer was a very small boy when ' Parson Hawker ' first gave him permission
to look through the wonderful old books in the parsonage library. None
xvi PREFACE
should have said Cheltenham Grammar School, a much
older institution. This error, which occurred also in an
article of mine in The Bookman, was kindly pointed out by
Mr. H. D. Woostor, of Cheltenham, who writes : — " As an
old Grammar School boy it is unnecessary to say that I
take quite an interest in the works and life of one who is
perhaps the best known member of the old school."
C. E. B.
knew so well, nor could relate so delightfully as he, the exquisite legends of
the ' Morte D'Arthur.' Tristram and Isolde, Guinevere and Lancelot, Merlin
and Vivien, Sir Kay the Seneschal, Sir Galahad and the Sangraal — how full
of life each of these became under the magic of his vivid story-telling! The
dear old boy I — ' All things he seemed to understand of old or new, on sea or
land,' and certainly none could realize the unreal as he could, nor get so much
solid comfort out of what exists solely in the imagination."
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I
PAGE
1803-1822 — Boyhood i
CHAPTER n
1 82 3-1 82 5 — Oxford and Marriage - - - - 12
CHAPTER HI
The Trelawny Ballad - - - - - 23
CHAPTER IV
1825-1834 — ' Pompeii' — Ordination — North Tamer-
ton — MoRWENSTOw - - 32
CHAPTER V
1834 — The Parish of Morwenstow - - - - 41
CHAPTER VI
The Parishioners of Morwenstow - - - - 56
CHAPTER VII
1835-1837 — The Making of Morwenstow — The
Vicarage — The School — Coombe Bridge - - 75
b xvii
xviii LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
CHAPTER VIII
PAGE
The Vicar — I, — Dress — Stationery — Seals — Hospi-
tality— Wit — Superstition — Opium - - - 83
II. — Love of Birds and Animals — Farming — Charity 102
CHAPTER IX
Hawker as a Churchman — Views on Science and
Religion — His Preaching — Ideas of Baptism —
Epitaphs — Church Services — Relations with
Dissenters - - 121
CHAPTER X
1842-3 — Wrecks — The 'Caledonia' — The 'Phcenix'
— The 'Alonzo' - - - - - - - 157
CHAPTER XI
1843-1848 — Lawsuit with Sir John Buller — Harvest
Thanksgivings — Rural Synods — Offertory — Con-
troversial Letters — ' The Field of Rephidim '
— The Priest of Baldhu - - - - - 168
CHAPTER XII
1848 — Tennyson at Morwenstow - - - - 189
CHAPTER XIII
1848-185 2 — A Characteristic Advertisement — The
Sellon Controversy — Gretser — The Letters
Begin — The Gorham Judgment — Hawker becomes
Curate *of Welcombe — Letters to his Brother
Claud and Rev. W D. Anderson — The Roman
Hierarchy — The Pope and Wesley — Religious
Riots in Cornwall 108
CONTENTS xix
CHAPTER XIV
PAGE
1852-1855 — Wreck of the 'Primrose' — Letters to
Richard Twining and Miss Louisa Twining — "The
Arisen Dead" — Letters to Sir Thomas Acland,
Rev. W. Waddon Martyn, Rev. W. West, Dr. Lee,
and Rev. W. D. Anderson — "A Vile Rebellion"
— A Vision — The Immaculate Conception — St.
Thomas Aquinas — "John Milton : That Puritan
Thief" — "A Blaspheming Smithery" — Discovery
of Piscina — " L. S. D." — The Postman Poet — A
Very Rural Dean — A Village Cobden — "A Preci-
ous Piece of Popery " 221
CHAPTER XV
Literary Work. 185 2-1 862 — Contributions to
' Household Words ' — (Dickens does pay) — ' Notes
AND Queries ' — ' Willis's Current Notes ' —
'Arscott of Tetcott' — "Numyne" — 'Baal-Zephon'
— "Rudis Indigestaque Moles" — Chattertonian
Methods — Letter to Blackwoods' — Blight's
' Ancient Crosses,' etc. — " A Blundering Failure "
— Musical Young Ladies — 'Sir Beville" — An
Audacious Plagiarism — Tre, Pol and Pen —
Tabooed by ' The Times '----- 249
CHAPTER XVI
Letters to Mrs. Watson, i 855-1 862 — Crimean War
— Napoleon III. — A Son of Dr. Arnold at
Morwexstow — An Epitaph — Florence Nightingale
— Lord Clinton — A Fatal Accident — A Murder —
Rival Coroners — A Comet — Plymouth Brethren
— Sturgeon — -The Indian Mutiny — A Wreck —
Death of a Wrecker — Lord Harrowby at Mor-
XX LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
PAGE
WENSTOw — ' The Great Eastern ' — Visit of Dean
LiDDELL — The Vera Effigies — Sir Bevill Gran-
ville's Coffin — The Comet of i86i — American
Civil War — Death of Prince Albert — The Exhibi-
tion 278
CHAPTER XVII
1856-1862 — Letters to J. G. Godwin — Dean Cowie —
Rev. W, D. Anderson — Rev. W. West — Buddhism
— " Fragments of a Broken Mind " — The Evil
Eye — A Case of Passive Resistance — "The Poet
of Cornwall " — The Demon's Autograph — Prince
Albert and Swedenborg — St. Thomas Aquinas —
The Spasm of the Ganglions — ' Essays and Re-
views ' — A Repugnant Nose — " The House that
Jack Built " 364
CHAPTER XVIII
Wreck and Desolation — Loss of the ' Bencoolen ' —
'A Croon on Hennacliff' — Death of Mrs.
Hawker --------- 395
CHAPTER XIX
1863 — 'The Quest of the Sangraal' — Hawker's
Masterpiece — Compared with Tennyson's ' Holy
Grail' — Opinions of Longfellow and Tennyson
— The Earl of Carlisle at Morwenstow —
Sketches the Vicar on Clovelly Quay — Fire
AT the Vicarage — Horatio Walpole Calls — A
New Parishioner — "A Blessing Or — ?" — Miss
" Lebjinckski " — " Slightly Cracked " — A Lucky
Speculation of Sir Galahad — The Demon-Bird —
Letter to the Queen — " An Utter Donkey " —
Letter from Cardinal Wiseman — "Ichabod" - 410
CONTENTS xxi
CHAPTER XX
PACE
1863-4 — Wreck of the 'Margaret Quayle' — Brain
Fever — Visit to Boscastle — Johnny Valentine - 459
CHAPTER XXI
1863-4 — The Vicar's Loneliness — Death of
Thackeray — The Vicar has Brain Fever —
Garibaldi — Newman and Kingsley — " A very
Unpretending Old-fashioned Young Lady" —
Jeune made a Bishop — His Blue Swallowtail
— The Vicar Photographed — Even the Warts —
Darwin and Lyell — ' Blue Eyes Melt : Dark
Eyes Burn' — Love Poems — Little Johnny
Valentine — " Do You Think I Ought or Not ? " 469
CHAPTER XXII
Second Marriage — 1864 ------ 497
CHAPTER XXIII
1864-1868 — Colenso and the Church — Politics —
Mr. Gladstone's Speeches — Assassination of
President Lincoln — Contributions to Magazines
— Births of his Children— Cattle Plague —
Demons — Visitation Sermon — " Ecce Homo " — A
Whale at Morwenstow — Wreck of the 'Jeune
Joseph' — Abyssinian War — Irish Disestablishment 509
CHAPTER XXIV
1868-1870 — 'Cornish Ballads' — • Letters from
Froude — Wreck of the ' Avonmore ' — Bishop
Temple — Archbishop Tait — ' Footprints ' — Money
Troubles — The Vicar Photographed - - - 572
xxii LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
CHAPTER XXV
PAGE
1 870-1 874 — Occasional Verses — 'Aurora' — Austin
DoBSON — The Franco-Prussian War — Mr.
Spender's Reminiscences — The Bishop of London
AT MORWENSTOW -LETTERS OF CONDOLENCE PrAYER
for the Dead —Prayer for the Prince of Wales
— Church Restoration — A Great Storm — Letter
TO H. Sewell Stokes — Illness — Rev. John Rawlins
— Anecdotes - - - - - - - - 590
CHAPTER XXVI
1874 — Visit to London — Hawker at the Opening of
Parliament— At the Zoo — At the Pro-Cathedral
— At Westminster Abbey — Letters to Dr. Lee —
Preaches at All Saints, Lambeth — Preaches at
St. Matthias, Brompton — Letter from Longfellow
— The Public Worship Regulation Bill — " A very
Inferior Lot ! " - - - - - - - 608
CHAPTER XXVII
1874-5 — Rev. J. F. Chanter's Reminiscences —
Matthew Arnold's Brother at Morwenstow —
Ecclesiastical Questions — Tait's Baptism — Epi-
grams— Another Wreck — ' A Canticle for
Christmas ' — Letters from Manning and Newman
— ' PsALMUs Cantici ' — The New Curate — " My
Mind! It is Gone"- - 61 '
CHAPTER XXVIII
1875 — The Last Journey - - - -
CONTENTS xxiii
CHAPTER XXIX
PAGE
Secessional 640
CHAPTER XXX
Conclusion 650
Appendix I. — The Hawker Memorial - - - 657
Appendix H. — Bibliography - - - 660
Appendix HI. — Hawker Literature - - - - 666
Index .-__ 669
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
The Rev. R. S. Hawker Frontispiece
From a "water-colour sketch by the Earl of Carlisle made in 1 863
TACING PAGE
Hawker's Birthplace 2
The Rev. J. S. Hawker and his Wife (Parents of
R. S. Hawker) ...... 4
From silhouettes in the possession of Mr. J. Somers James
The Rev. Robert Hawker, D.D. (Grandfather of
R. S. Hawker) ....... 6
From an engraving by William Blake of a painting by L. Pensford
Old Whitstone House (since rebuilt) . . . 12
Draivn in lithography by J. Ley Pethy bridge from an old sketch
Efford Manor (now Bude Vicarage) . . . 14
Draivn in lithography by J. Ley Pethybridge
Hawker as an Undergraduate . . . . 20
Draivn in lithography by T. R. Way from a zvater-colour by W,
Wright, 1825
Coombe Cottage, Morwenstow . . , . . 22
Draivn in lithography by J. Ley Pethybridge
Tamerton Church ....... 34
Draivn in lithography by J. Ley Pethybridge
XXV
xxvi LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
FACING PAGE
MoRWENSTOw Church and Lych-gate ... 44
From photographs by the Rev. R. A. Morris
Mural Painting in Morwenstow Church . . 46
Interior of Tonacombe Manor .... 48
Draivn in lithography by J. Ley Pethybridge
The Waddon Lantern, Hawker's Stick and Holy
Water Stoups ....... 50
Drazun in lithography by J. Ley Pethybridge
Marsland House, Morwenstow . . . . 62
Draivn in lithography by J. Ley Pethybridge
Morwenstow Vicarage . . . . . . 78
Draivn in lithography by J, Ley Pethybridge
Tablet over the Vicarage Door and Norman Porch
OF THE Church ...... 80
From photographs by the Rev. R. A, Morris
The Vicar's Welcome. Portrait of Hawker stand-
ing AT his door ...... 84
Draivn in lithography by T. R. Way from a photograph by S. Thorn
Hawker's Seals, the Mystic Fish, the Pentacle
of Solomon, etc. ...... 90
Mr W. G. Harris and Mr Thomas Cann, the two
Churchwardens . . . . . .154
From photographs by T. Bennett, Worcester, and H. Thorn, Bude,
respectively
Hawker's Hut in the Cliffs . . . . .166
From a ph'^tngraph by S. Thorn
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS xxvii
FACING PACK
Facsimiles of Letters from Tennyson and his Wife
TO Hawker ...... 196
The Old Cornish Cross in Morwenstow Church-
yard ......... 204
Dratvn in lithography by J. Ley Pethybridge
Welcombe Church . . . . . . .206
Dratun in lithography by J. Ley Pethybridge
Bishop Phillpotts (in 185 i) . . . . . 214
After a mezzotint engra-ved by William Waller Jrom a painting by
T. A, Woolnoth. Pri-uate plate J^rom the collection of Oiven
Pritchard, M.D.
Medal of the Immaculate Conception worn by
Hawker ........ 238
Edward Capern, the Devonshire Postman Poet . 244
Prom a picture in the possession of Alderman J . W. Narratvay at Bideford
Norman Arches and the " Carvure " of the Trinity
in Morwenstow Church .... 266
Sir Thomas Dyke Acland, Bart. (Grandfather of
THE present Baronet) ..... 396
From a draiving by Richmond,
Profile Sketch of the Rev. R. S. Hawker . . 428
From a draiving by the Earl of Carlisle made in I 863
Waes-hael Bowl ....... 450
Formerly belonging to Haivker, and nozu in the possession of Mrs.
H. J. Bailey, Roivden Abbey, Bromyard
Thb Rev. R. S. Hawker 482
From a photograph by the late Dr. Richard Budd, taken at Barnstaple
in May I 8 64
xxviii LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
FACING PAGE
The Rev. R. S. Hawker and his Second Wife . 506
From photographs by S. Thorn, Bude, and H. JVebster, Baystxiater
The Rev. Robert Hawker, D.D. (Grandfather of
R. S. Hawker) 552
The Rev. R. S. Hawker 588
From a photograph by S. Thorn, Bude, taken in June, 1 8 70
William Maskell . . . . . . .594
From a painting by Richmond, in the possession of Mr. Alfred Maskell
Hawker's Grave in Plymouth Cemetery . . . 638
The Vicar of Morwenstow (in surplice, stole, and
biretta) ........ 634
From a photograph by Haivke, Plymouth, taken on fth August 1 8 75
The Memorial Window in Morwenstow Church . 658
Un-veiled on %th September 1 9 04
THE LIFE & LETTERS
OF R. S. HAWKER
CHAPTER I
1803-1822
Boyhood
" I love the ocean ! from a very child
It has been to me as a nursing breast,
Cherishing wild fancies."
R. S. Hawker (182 1).
Robert Stephen Hawker was born at Plymouth on
the third of December, 1803. He was the eldest child of
Jacob Stephen Hawker, then a doctor, who had married
Jane Elizabeth, daughter of Stephen Drewitt, of Winches-
ter. The father of Jacob Stephen Hawker was the Rev.
Robert Hawker, D.D., the well-known Calvinistic divine,
for forty-three years Vicar of Charles Church, Plymouth,
To trace the genealogy one step further back. Dr. Robert
Hawker was the son of Jacob Hawker, surgeon, and Mayor
of Exeter in 1744.
The house where Robert Stephen Hawker was born has
been identified with No. 6, Norley Street, Plymouth. This
we learn from a letter written by him sixty years after
to his brother-in-law, the late Mr. John Somers James : —
"Dec. ij., 1863.
" My Dear John,
" Sixty years agone the day you read this I
was brought into the light of life in a house in that
lane leading from Broad Street up towards Charles Church.
A I
LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
The house stood in the elbow of the lane just above the
old Unitarian Chapel. It is worth your while to take
Sommers with you : Walk up and down that lane and
meditate.
" I was at birth a harmless-looking, and, as poor Mother
used to say, a lovely little child. She was not a prophetess :
if she had been, and she had only been gifted with common
compassion, she must have gently but firmly compressed
those baby nostrils till there was no more life.
" What I should have avoided then ! What would have
been spared me ! But then my place in the great Mystery
of the World would have been void, and as, I suppose, even
toads and moles have a vocation to fulfil, I have accom-
plished mine."
For some reason the infant Robert Stephen was not
baptized by his grandfather at Charles Church, but by his
uncle, the Rev. John Hawker, then curate in charge of the
Parish of Stoke-Damerel. The entry in the baptismal
register of that church is dated 29 Dec. 1803.
Mr. John Hawker of Stoke was the eldest son of the
Vicar of Charles, and was something of a character. In
1829 he withdrew from the Church of England, and became
minister of Eldad Chapel, Plymouth, which was built for
him. He is said, in an old newspaper of that date, to have
been " popular with a numerous and respectable class of
Christians." One of his characteristics was a tendency to
preach long sermons, and thereby hangs a tale.
Two sailors of the Ro}-al Navy once attended Divine
service at his church of Stoke-Damerel. One of them,
seeing the letters I.H.S. inscribed in the chancel, asked his
companion ^^•hat the}' meant. " Why," said he, " that stands
for John Hawker, Stoke." The sermon that day was so
long that when the men returned to their ships they found
they had missed their dinner. Not long afterwards the
HAWKKR S i;iRrilPLA(;E.
Xo. 6, Norley Street. Plymouth.
JOHN HAWKER, STOKE"
ship was ordered to Portsmouth, and the same two men
went on shore to go to church. No sooner had they taken
their seats, however, than one of them observed in the
chancel the same mystic initials I.H.S. " Mate," said he,
" Here's that John Hawker of Stoke again. I guess we'll
make sail, or we shall lose our dinner." So they walked
out.
A few years after the birth of his eldest child, Mr. Jacob
Stephen Hawker abandoned the medical profession, and took
Holy Orders. His first curacy was at Altarnun. About
1813 he became Curate, and in 1833 Vicar, of Stratton
in North Cornwall, holding the living till his death in 1845.
When his father left Plymouth, young Robert Stephen
Hawker was entrusted to the care of his grandfather, the
Vicar of Charles, who exercised a considerable influence on
the boy's early training.
The Rev. Robert Hawker, D.D., was at that time a pro-
minent divine, and the author of a great number of devotional
and theological works. He was a very popular preacher,
and was often to be heard in London churches. His know-
ledge of the Scriptures was remarkable, and he could
preach on any passage at a moment's notice. It is said
that he was a favourite of King George HI., who used to
hand him a text just before he entered the pulpit.
Dr. Hawker's collected works were published in ten
volumes in 1831, with a memoir by the Rev. John Williams.
Perhaps his most popular book was ' The Poor Man's
Morning and Evening Portion.'
Lavish generosity to the poor appears to have been in-
herited from Dr. Hawker by his grandson. " Let there be,"
said the Doctor, " but one parish of the whole kingdom,
considered as to the poor. In all other parochial concerns
the present distinction of bounds and interests should con-
tinue." But, as his biographer tells us, " although he was
LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
indeed a Barnabas to the Church, in administering con-
solation to the humble and contrite, yet he was a Boanerges
to the ungodly whose acts of audacity and impiety merited
the severity of reproof. He knew how to rebuke sharply " with
all authority." This trait in the good Doctor's character
seems also to have been transmitted to his grandson.
Dr. Hawker made little profit out of his numerous books,
and what he did was devoted to charitable uses. " The
volume of Scripture extracts, which contains more than
700 pages in octavo, was given to the original publisher on
condition of his supplying his Sunday school assembly at
the Household of Faith with certain articles of clothing."
There is a marble bust of Dr. Hawker in Charles Church,
and a tablet with the following inscription :
" A Public Tribute of
Affection and Respect
To the Memory of
The Rev. Robert Hawker, D.D.,
Six years Curate
And Forty-three years Vicar
Of this Parish,
Who died
The sixth day of April, 1827,
Aged 74 years."
Another inscription states that his daughter, Mary Granville
Hodson, left ^250, the dividends of which are " to be given
away on the 12th of Dec. for ever" among the poor of
the parish.
This Mrs. Hodson was a good friend to young Robert
Hawker, her nephew, and bore much of the expense of his
education. He was a high-spirited and mischievous boy,
and made himself a terror to his grandfather's friends by
the tricks he played upon them. The following story was
related by his nephew : —
" There were at that time three very prim old ladies,
£ X
THE IMAGINARY MR. RICHARDSON 5
parishioners of the Doctor's, Hving in South Side Street,
then a fashionable quarter. The greatest insult that could
be offered them was to suggest that they were in the habit
of taking in lodgers. Robert called one day at the house,
and enquired whether Mr. Richardson, a friend of his, was
lodging there. He had heard that he was staying in
apartments in that neighbourhood. He was answered, of
course, by a chilling negative. The next day he sent some
one else to make the same enquiry, and every day a fresh
caller came, until the old ladies were perfectly sick of the
name of Richardson. One day Robert was passing the
house with a friend (Mr. T. Duncan Newton), and a little
way beyond it he stopped, and said, " By the way, I meant
to have asked at No. — whether a man I know, named
Richardson, is lodging there. Would you mind just going
back to ask, while I go into this shop ? " Newton went off
unsuspecting, but returned much in wrath. " What's the
matter," cried Robert, in surprise. " Your friend Richard-
son," said the other, " can't be a very desirable acquaint-
ance. The moment I mentioned his name, the servant
retired, came back with a poker, smashed in my hat, and
slammed the door. Another time you can ask for your
friends yourself."
The story goes that the irrepressible Robert continued to
torment the old ladies in a manner resembling the famous
Berners Street hoax of Theodore Hook. Tradesmen of
all kinds left at their door the most ponderous consign-
ments. No doubt, if the ' Encyclopaedia Britannica ' had
been in vogue at that time, the old dames would have
become involuntary subscribers. Eventually, it is said, a
coffin arrived for Mr. Richardson, deceased, and the un-
fortunate victims, becoming apprehensive as to what might
follow, deemed it prudent to remove to another town.
Nor was good Dr. Hawker himself entirely exempt. One
LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
day Robert brought to him a revised version which he had
made of the hymn, ' Lord, dismiss us with thy blessing,'
and asked his grandfather whether he did not think it an
improvement on the one in the Sunday school hymn-book
of Charles Church.^ When the doctor informed him, with
some dignity, that he himself had written the hymn-book
version, Robert affected great confusion and penitence.
After running away from several preparatory schools,
Robert was placed under the .care of the Rev. Athanasius
Laffer, headmaster of the Grammar School at Liskeard.
He showed early promise of literary ability, but, as he used
to say himself in after years, he was not a diligent scholar,
and hated the restraints and discipline of school. His
father was now Curate of Stratton, and Robert accordingly
went there for his holidays. The neighbourhood soon heard
of him, and traditions are still current of the pranks which
he played on the inhabitants. Question one of the
' Mr. W. T. Brooke, an authority on hymnology, says that the original
authorship of this hymn is uncertain. He assigns it (i), most probably,
to Sir Richard Hill, 1773, or (2) to the Rev. Benjamin Fawcett, a Congrega-
tional minister. Another claimant is Dr. John Fawcett, a Baptist minister.
Dr. Martineau ascribes a version to the Hon. & Rev. Walter Shirley (1774).
Dr. Hawker wrote an independent version, borrowing the first line of the
original. His version, which first appeared in 1787 in his ' Psalms and
Hymns for the Sunday school of Charles, Plymouth,' is given as follows in
Julian's ' Dictionary of Hymnology ' : —
" Lord, dismiss us with Thy blessing.
Bid us all depart in peace ;
Still on gospel manna feeding,
Pure seraphic love increase.
Till we reach that blissful station.
Where we"ll give Thee nol)ler praise.
And sing hallelujah to God and the Lamb,
For ever and ever.
Hallelujah ! Hallelujah ! Hallelujah ! "
Mr. Baring-Gould (according to the 'Index to the Irish Church Hymnal')
"has inadvertently quoted the hymn [as by Dr. Hawker] with Fawcett's
text." He also gives young Robert's " improved version," on what authority
it would be interesting to know.
DR. IIAWKKR
HAWKER AS A MERMAID 7
elders of the parish on this subject, and he will discourse^
with a twinkle in his eye, in some such terms as these :
" I've yeerd my vather tell many a time, as Mas'r Robert —
that's what they used to call Passon Hawker in those days
— was up to all manner of trecks : tukt the ball o' twine
out o' the cordwainer's shop,^ and winded up the whole
town in twine, so as people passin' along was pitched on
their noses without zakly knowin' why. Then dressin' up
in sea-weed, and not much else, and settin' on a rock down
to Biide in the miinelight, and combin' his hair and zingin',.
till all the town went out to see un : they thought et was a
merry-maid sure enough. An' ther' 'e set an' zinged every
night, till a varmer tukt a gun an' tried to shut un."
A favourite butt for young Robert's mischievous pranks
was an old man named Elias George, who kept a little
general shop in Stratton, and used to play hymn tunes on a
violoncello. The door of the shop had an upper and a
lower hatch, so that the top half could be open while the
lower was closed. One day Robert slipped into the shop
while Elias was out, locked the lower hatch on the inner
side, hung a bundle of tallow dips on the spit before the
fire, in place of the old man's joint which was cooking
there, and ensconced himself in the back parlour, where he
drew unwonted strains from Elias's treasured instrument.
Presently Elias returned. Being lame, he could not climb
over the hatch, so he stood glaring over it, furious, but
impotent, at the grease as it streamed from the roasted
candles, while the weird notes of his own bass viol sounded
from within. " Lord's sake," said the old man, " 'tes either
the Devil or Mas'r Robert," and he hobbled away to obtain
the assistance of a neighbour. Robert, meanwhile, slipped
over the hatch and was off.
On one occasion, however, Robert helped the old man
' This story is also told at Liskeard of a shopkeeper there.
LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
out of a difficulty. The owner of the shop had given EHas
warning to quit, and instructed him to put up a notice in
the window to the effect that the premises were to let.
Elias, being no great hand at literary composition, called
in the aid of his young tormentor. " Yii've played me
many a treck ; yii may dii me a gude turn for wance,
Mas'r Robert," he said. " But do you really want to leave
the house ? " asked Robert, when he heard the circumstances,
for Elias was known to be attached to his abode. " Not
a bit of et," said he. " I wud like to stay yeer's long's I
live." " All right," said Robert ; and he thereupon wrote
out the following placard in large letters :
" This house to let,
Both cold and wet :
In it you'll find no ease.
In winter you'll be froze to death,
In summer eat by fleas."
The old man, being unable to read, duly posted the notice
in his window.
Like most boys at a certain age, Robert had a partiality
for orchards. In one large orchard the trees were high,
and he could not reach the trees standing, so to save
himself trouble he would break through a gap in the hedge
on horseback. The owner, on examining the ground, dis-
covered the hoof marks where the horse went out, but he
could never find where it came in. Robert had provided
for this, by backing the horse through the hedge.
He was indeed the enfant terrible of the neighbourhood.
There were two families that were not on the best of terms
with each other. At one of the houses there grew in the
garden a valuable and highly-treasured cherry-tree. One
morning the tree of Capulet was found transplanted to the
garden of Montague. Robert, we may say, was a plague
on both their houses.
SATAN'S FRONT DOOR
The local practitioner, likewise, fell a victim to his
merciless ingenuity. Hawker used to tell the story himself
in after days. One morning an urgent message arrived for
the doctor to attend a lady taken suddenly ill at a house
some miles away. The doctor ran round to the stable to
mount his horse, when lo ! before his astonished gaze
appeared a creature far more resembling a zebra than his
own grey mare. The mane was cut short, and the animal
was covered with stripes of black paint. However, there
was no time to make inquiries. He mounted his weird
steed, and rode away full gallop up the principal street of
the town, through which he was obliged to pass, amid the
jeers and wonder of the population. When, at a furious
pace he dashed up to his patient's door, he found that the
lady was in the best of health, and had never sent any
such message. About this time the people of Stratton got
up a dramatic entertainment. The title of the piece was
' Pizarro and Little Pickle,' and the part of Pizarro was
assumed by Mr. Somers James, who in after years married
one of Hawker's sisters. At a critical moment, when
Pizarro had just been slain, the curtain, from some in-
explicable hitch, declined to fall, and eventually the corpse
of Pizarro had to get up and walk out with the best grace
that it could muster. Another incident of the play was
the death and cooking of a favourite parrot, which was to
be brought in at a banquet on the stage. A roast chicken
had been prepared for the purpose, but when the time
came for the bird's appearance it was nowhere to be found.
It transpired afterwards that Robert and his brother had
slipped behind the scenes, and eaten it.
He was walking through Stratton one day with a
friend, when the latter said, " Look ! some one has written
' Satan ' on the door of the Wesleyan chapel."
" No doubt he did it himself," replied Robert. " It is no
lo LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
uncommon thing for a gentleman to put his name on his
own front door."
When Robert's school days at Liskeard came to an end,
he was placed with a solicitor at Plymouth, William
Jacobson ; but the legal profession did not suit his taste,
and he soon abandoned it. He was then about sixteen,
and by the kindness of his aunt, Mrs. Hodson, he was sent
to Cheltenham College. Here, in 1821, he published his
first book of poems, ' Tendrils, by Reuben,' a volume
which is nowexceedingly scarce.^ It is dedicated " To the
Friends of my Early Boyhood," and the preface shows a
modesty and candour all too infrequent among youthful
poets.
A writer ^ on Hawker alleges that " nothing is to be
learned of the inner life of those 'prentice days," and that
" the booklet was not remarkable in any way, and not even
interesting save as another illustration of the fact that
even in the work of unmistakeably original poets imitative-
ness precedes individuality." That there is imitativeness
in ' Tendrils ' we must admit. There are traces at least
of Shakespeare, Byron, and Tom Moore. That there is
nothing to be learned from them of the author's inner life
is not so obvious. The introduction to the first poem
strikes at once a dominant note in Hawker's mental life,
his love of legend and superstition.
Again, it may be said that, apart from its literary quality,
the sentiment of a poem tells us something of its author's
character. Throughout this little book breathes a spirit of
tenderness and purity, and a whole-souled love of nature.
In 'Deborah's Song' we seem to catch the clear ring
and simple strength of his later ballads.
There is one respect in which a first effort in poetry may
' It is reprinted in ' Cornish Ballads.'
^ Mr. J, Ashcroft Noble in ' The Sonnet in England,' pp. 184 and 187.
TENDRILS' II
be remarkable, and that is by being a financial success.
In this respect Hawker's volume appears not to have
differed from its kind, if we may judge from the following
entry made years afterwards in one of his note-books : —
" Pathos.
" In the Times to-day it is said : ' A young man slew himself.
On his table was a paper written : " Life is sweet (common pro-
verb). I have found it bitter." ' Some disappointment in literary
undertakings. Cf. Cheltenham, 1820."
Towards the end of his life, when a friend wished to
obtain a copy of the book, Hawker had forgotten even the
title. I have but a hazy recollection," he writes in 1871,
" of the Cheltenham affair. ' Fibres ' is the nearest guess I
can make." His friend not being able to trace it, he writes
again : " If ' Fibres ' fail, why not try ' Pendicles ' ? A city
set on an hill cannot be hid."
Another reminiscence of this period he gives in a letter
dated 1864, where he says: "Very many years ago, before
I married, I lived for several months in a kind of hut upon
the seashore, with a man who was a kind of half-fisherman
half-wrecker ; and his house was chiefly wooden, and I
went there to study by myself, and what with the situation,
the novelty, and the various incidents of the day and night,
I do not think I was ever happier or more occupied with
interest than there."
CHAPTER II
1823-1825
Oxford and Marriage
" And thou, whose ear hath listen'd to my song,
Link'd to the minstrel by a holy tie:
Thou to whom grateful memories belong,
Of gentle heart, kind hand, and loving eye ;
For thee I weave these words — if one should sigh
O'er him who in these vallies lov'd and died ;
If a recording word be breathed hereby, . . ,
Thou shalt with him that homage still divide,
When our warm hearts be hush'd, and withering side by side."
R. S. Hawker (1832).
On the 28th of April 1823, at the age of 19, Robert Hawker
matriculated at Pembroke College, Oxford, but he had only
spent a term or two there when an event took place which
was to be a controlling element in his life for forty years.
Among his friends near Stratton, was the family of
the late Colonel Wrey Pans, of Whitstone, a man of some
note and considerable force of character, descended from
one Robert Pans, Master of the Ordnance to Queen Eliza-
beth and at one time Lord Mayor of Dublin. Colonel
Pans's father had married a daughter of Sir Bourchier
Wrey. At the time of Waterloo the Colonel was in com-
mand of the Cornwall Provisional Cavalry. He was also
a magistrate for Devon and Cornwall. It may have been
from him that the future Vicar of Morwenstow learnt the
lesson of that humanity to shipwrecked sailors for which
r-/
COLONEL WREY TANS 13
he afterwards became famous, A silver snuff-box still in
existence bears the inscription, " This box is gratefully-
presented to Wrey I'ans, Esq., by Jere Hill & Sons, of
Bristol, as a small token of their acknowledgment of his
particular services in saving the Cargo of the Brig Purissi-
ma Concepdon, belonging to them, stranded at Bude Bay,
Sept 6, 1783, and for his great Attention and Humanity to
the unfortunate Crew."
A similar occasion is recorded in Hawker's head-note
to a poem called 'The Wreck,' where he mentions "the
following inscription on a goblet in my possession " —
"This cup is presented to Wrey I'Ans, Esquire, by Edward &
Robert Were Fox, of Wadebridge, on behalf of the proprietors of
the Cargo of the St. Anna St. Joseph, Captain Antony de Fonseca
Rosa, wrecked at Bude the 7th of August, 1790, for his care in
saving the same, and particular attention to the unfortunate
Crew."
The history of this cup has an interesting sequel. In a
letter dated Feb. xv, 1849, Hawker writes to Sir Thomas
Acland, grandfather of the present Baronet : —
"My Dear Sir Thomas,
" Mrs. Hawker's last surviving Sister Fanny has
been removed from us by Death. We have placed all our
Leases under yourself in the hands of our Friend and
Solicitor Mr. Rowe, in whom we and all who know him
have deep and utter confidence. But there is one matter
on which Mrs. Hawker desires me personally to address
you. She inherits, as the last of her family, a valuable and
handsome Silver Cup — a Chalice in form, which was
presented to Colonel I'Ans in memory of his exertions at
Bude, in the year 1790, in the Rescue of the Crew and
Cargo of a Shipwrecked Vessel there. This relique my
14 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
Wife is anxious to preserve if possible in the Scene of the
Event it was intended to record ; and, with your approval
and consent she desires to add it to the Eucharistic Vessels
of your Chapel at Bude ; in the hope and trust that it may
be protected for many generations in that Sacred Ground.
It will be to her an additional comfort to find that you will
receive and cause to be cherished this last memorial of a
family now nearly extinct, but which has numbered in its
course many recollections of Sir Thomas Acland's kindness
as a Landlord and a personal friend."
Colonel I'ans died in 1816, leaving four daughters, verging
on middle age, but very charming and accomplished. They
lived partly at Whitstone, and partly at Efiford Manor,^
Bude, an interesting old house which their father had rented
from Sir Thomas Acland. Robert Hawker spent a good
deal of time in their society. It often happens that a
young man's first affections are bestowed upon a woman older
than himself, and it was so in the present case, with the
further complication, apparently, that these affections were
at first divided. Tradition relates that before he was
accepted by one sister he had been refused by another,
and a poem in ' Tendrils,' called ' A Remembrance,' affords
some confirmation of this.
I At the beginning of the i6th century, Efford belonged to Sir John Arundel
of Trerice. Carew in his ' Survey of Cornwall ' (1602) quaintly says,
"Returning to the Westwards, wee meete with Bude, an open sandie Bay, in
whose mouth riseth a little hill, by euerie sea-floud made an Hand, and there-
on, a decayed Chappell : it spareth roade only to such small shipping, as bring
their tide with them, and leaveth them drie, when the ebbe hath carried away
the Salt water. Upon one side hereof. Master Arundel of Trerice possesseth a
pleasant-seated house, and demaines, called Efford, alias, Ebbingford, and that
not unproperly, because euerie low water, there affordeth passage to the other
shore : but now it may take a new name, for his better plight : for this Gentle-
man hath, to his great charges, builded a Salt-water mill, athwart this Bay,
whose causey serveth, as a verie convenient bridge, to save the way-farers
former trouble, let and daunger." In 1835 Sir Thomas Acland built and
endowed Bude church, and gave Efford to the living as a vicarage.
^^"^/wkK^^
Efford Manor House,
(t!<)\v tiie \'ic<'irage, lUide).
MARRIAGE 15
Hawker was married to Miss Charlotte I'ans on 6 Nov-
ember 1823, she being then forty-one and he a month short
of twenty. The ceremony was performed by his father.
Mr. Baring-Gould would have us believe that this was a
mercenary marriage. He tells us that when Robert Hawker
learnt that his father was unable to keep him at the Univer-
sity, " without waiting to put on his hat, he ran from Stratton
to Bude, arrived hot and blown at Efford, and proposed to
Miss Charlotte Fans to become his wife. The lady . . .
was his godmother, and had taught him his letters." Mr.
Baring-Gould does not give his authority for the story, and
it was publicly denied by several of Hawker's friends.
Yet it still remains in his latest edition.^
Mr. William Maskell, in the AthencEum of 25 March 1876,
wrote : —
" The whole story is a myth, and it is wonderful that Mr. Gould
should have idly allowed himself to repeat such a fiction. The
run, hatless, for a couple of miles has no foundation beyond the
invention of Mr. Gould's informant. Neither was Miss I'Ans
* his godmother,' nor had she ' taught him his letters.' The two
had never seen each other until Robert Hawker was at least eight
years old," and after that, for years, he had been often thrown
into her society, and grown up in habits of frequent intimacy and
with increasing feeling of regard. The marriage was nothing but
the common story of a young man marrying a woman considerably
older than himself; and Charlotte I'Ans, at forty, was a person of
considerable attractions, well educated, fond of literature, a good
companion, and in every respect a lady. She was suited to be
the wife of such a man ; and they lived together for nearly forty
years in harmony and affection. Mrs. Hawker had always the
truest regard for, and admiration of, her husband ; and, on his
' I may add that in 1899 Mr. Baring-Gould consulted my wife as to his new
edition, and we then objected to this story, among other things, but he did
not see his way to alter it. — C. E. B.
i6 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
part, he never seemed to tire of paying her every attention and
kindness in his power."
The late Mr, Christopher Harris, at whose house, in 1 827,
Hawker wrote his ' Inscription for the Waterfall at Hayne,'
gave his recollections of Miss Fans in Johti Bull, of 1 5
April 1876: —
"We saw the lady," he says, "in 1816, then at the age of
thirty-three, eight years before her marriage. She was tall, fair,
and comely, with suave and winning manners, and very accom-
plished. Her elder sister, Florence, shone in conversation, and
was yet more good-looking. In the society of these ladies, at
Bude, Hawker spent most of his time. Young, handsome, and
brilliant, he was ever a welcome guest. His craving after know-
ledge was notorious. Books such as he desired were not to be
found at Stratton ; and the library at Whitstone, small yet well
selected, furnished the means of gratification. A similarity of
tastes was the bond of union between the attractive preceptress
and the diligent pupil ; they paid the usual penalty of propinquity,
and their relative positions became quickly reversed This
did not escape the vigilant eye of the second and elder sister ; but
the caution that was honestly given came too late for preventive
purposes It was in vain that a fearful disparity of years
was urged, which, in the course of time, might have unfortunate
results, and bring sorrow to both. The advice was most sage and
judicious, and, as is usual in such case, when the maggot bites,
was utterly disregarded."
"In this instance it should be observed," continues Mr. Harris,
" and we do so with singular pleasure, that the auguries of the elder
sister failed of consummation, and to no one did it cause greater
satisfaction than to that lady herself. We knew the Vicar of
IMorwenstow and his first wife during the whole time of their
married life, and to the very last their mutual affection remained
unimpaired in the sanctity of their plighted troth." ....
The honeymoon was spent at Tintagel, and there Hawker
first became interested in the story of the Sangraal. [See
COLLEGE FRIENDSHIPS 17
letter on page 412.] In 1824 he returned with his wife to
Oxford/ and on account of his marriage had to migrate from
Pembroke to Magdalen Hall, At Pembroke he had made
the acquaintance of Francis Jeune, afterwards Bishop of
Peterborough. Other friends were William Jacobson, of
Lincoln College, afterwards Bishop of Chester, and Arthur
Kelly, of Kelly, in Devon, then at Corpus, and Sir Thomas
Acland at Christ Church.
In a letter, dated 1856, Hawker writes: — "In 1825
three men in Oxford formed a friendship. They studied,
read, walked, and talked together from that date for
three years there. Their names were Jeune, Jacobson and
Hawker. Their college honours varied. Jeune had a first-
class, Jacobson a second. Hawker the Newdigate Prize
Poem. Their friendship still subsists — but their positions
are not alike. Jeune, after having been successively Head
Master of King Edward's School at Birmingham and Dean
of Jersey, is now the Master of Pembroke College, Oxford.^
Jacobson is Canon of Christ Church and the Royal Professor
of Divinity in Oxford. {N.B. — Both of these two have been
' Mr. Baring-Gould imparts a pretty touch of romance to the episode by
describing how she rode behind him on a pillion ; but Mr. Harris, in his article
previously quoted, pours contempt on this suggestion. He says: — "The
Darby and Joan pillion story is a ridiculous, although not a pious, fraud.
How long were they on the journey? What a good packhorse! Where was
the luggage? — in their pockets, or had they any? A matrimonial tub must
have been found sub dio by the roadside. At the period mentioned eighty
coaches ran daily in and out of Exeter to Bath and London. Mr. and Mrs.
Hawker started for Bath, per coach from Exeter, and the next day arrived at
Oxford." But Mr. Baring-Gould has remained unconvinced, for the pillion
still turns up in his 1899 edition.
2 There was a trio of Dons at Pembroke at that time called, the World,
the Flesh, and the Devil. Dr. Jeune was the Devil, not because the nickname
was at all appropriate, but because the World and the Flesh fitted the other
two so well. For Hawker's recollections of Jeune as an undergraduate, sue
letter on p. 478.
B
LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
looking for long to the Whigs for their Bishoprics.) And
the third of these is now Vicar of Morwenstow. . . .
" The Master of Pembroke," he continues, " is the actual
leader of the Low Church party among the Oxford
authorities, so much so, that Lord John Russell nominated
him one of the commissioners for throwing open the
University and reforming it Doctor Jacobson is of
such a mediocrity of opinion between all Parties that no
one to this hour can pronounce as to which he himself
belongs As to Oxford and its dangers, there is more
vice, equal temptation, and greater peril in every country
town in England than in that University."
In 1872 he writes to a lady who was going to Oxford : —
" I do envy you your visit to Oxford, the only place out of
my own house that I ever cared to see. The Bodleian used
to be my favourite haunt, and I have Notes now in MSS.
made there when I was in Oxford for my M.A. in 1845.
You surprise me by your tidings of Catholic revival ; from
what I see in the papers I should have looked for such
Buildings as Deo erexit Volt aire ^
Hawker did not hold a very high opinion of the classical
curriculum at Oxford as a mental training, his taste being
for patristic literature. He recognised that success in
classics is a matter of plodding and a good memory. His
own scholarship was somewhat loose and inaccurate, though
he was fond of quoting Horace and Virgil, and used the
Georgics as an authority in farming matters. Writing to a
lady who was sending a relative to Oxford, he says : —
" For your own encouragement allow me to add that a
Person whose abilities in general may not be exalted, may
have very great success as a student in Greek and Latin ;
and as scholarship in these two languages is the usual
standard in Oxford, there are no shining talents required to
succeed. A patient and persevering man is always more
NEWMAN— PUSEY— WARD— MARRIOTT 19
likely to prosper at the Universities than one whose Genius
would shine in ordinary life."
In 1848 he writes to a nephew going up to Pembroke: —
" You should conform to Dr. Jeune's suggestions about
double translations, learning the Latin. That and Arnold
will do you more good than all the Spectators that ever
were written. It is one of the lamentable blotches on
Oxford that they select such a miserable composer of
sentences as Addison was for translation. His parenthetic
pages, sometimes never ended at all, are about the worst
elements ever selected to form a clear and simple style."
In another letter written in 1861, he says : — " Dr. Bloxam
was an ancient friend of mine — one of a large body of
good and learned men — all now gone — and he only left.
How I recollect their faces and words — Newman — Pusey — •
Ward — Marriott — they used to be all in the common room
every evening discussing, talking, reading. I remember
that the one to whom I did 7iot take was Dr. Pusey. He
never seemed simple in thought or speech — obscure and
involved — and the last in all that set, as I now look back
and think, to have followers called by his name. But no
place in all the world is so utterly changed as Oxford is.
In my time it was the abode beyond all others of the un-
changeable. Nothing was ever allowed to be altered or to
undergo change. If any man doubted or rebelled he was
shunned and cut by all, so that he was glad to conform and
be hushed. But now every source of infidelity, every attack
on old doctrine and established creeds appears to be
assembled in my old University. ' Essays and Reviews,'
that is to say. Suggestions of doubt and disbelief in the
Old Testament and the New, have rushed like the Cherwell
from among the Colleges of Oxford to foam infidelity over
the land."
But a young and high-spirited undergraduate, whatever
20 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
substratum of piety there may be in his nature, has other
interests than those of religious controversy. Hawker
entered fully into the social life of Oxford, and took the
lead, we may be sure, in many a daring escapade. Some
of these exploits he has recorded himself in * Footprints."
Two of Mrs. Hawker's sisters came to live with them, and
Hawker was popularly known as " the man with three
wives." It must have taxed his good-humour to carry off
with success this embarrassing soubriquet, a fertile source,
no doubt, of undergraduate wit. On the other hand, his
wife and sisters-in-law were good company, and could afford
to entertain. Tradition relates that champagne breakfasts
were the order of the day.
Mr. Douglas Macleane, the author of ' Pembroke College,'
in the series of Oxford College Histories, couples Hawker's
name with that of Thomas Lovell Beddoes, who was con-
temporary with him, under the heading, ' Two Eccentric
Poets.' He mentions that some of Hawker's " extraordinary
letters " ^ are in the College Library.
In 1825 Hawker's eldest sister was married to the Rev.
William Kingdon, Rector of Whitstone, and this gave him
a double interest in that place. In a letter dated Morwen-
stow, i86r, he tells an amusing anecdote about the King-
dons. " Two years ago," he writes, " when William Kingdon
and Jane came up unexpectedly, they were overturned in
their gig close to our gate. I had been out in the Parish,
and on coming home I met our Old Man flurried at
the accident, and all I could get from him was — ' Upset
they be — Kingdons or hot tis,' that is, * or what 'tis ' !
I always say in joke to Jane that I divide the people of the
country into Men, Women, and Kingdons, these last being
very numerous."
Hawker and his wife used to spend the vacations at
' These are the letters to Mr. Anderson. See page 203.
s.'^ :
Robert SxErnEN Hawkek',
as an (^xffjrd rndrr<:ra(]iiate
"MOSES" 21
Whitstone. Many years afterwards, in 1 864, he writes : —
" When I was young, and Hving at Whitstone (poor C.'s
place), I built a kind of log hut in the wood, a mile from
any house, and there read for Deacon's orders, only going
home at night. It was one of my most peaceful periods
of life. I learnt St. Paul's Epistles by heart there, and ever
afterwards I used to revert to my Woodhouse with pleasure
and regret."
He set up against a tree near this hut a wooden figure,
which he called Moses, perhaps as a symbol of his occupa-
tion, or to scare away inquisitive disturbers of his peace,
for all the children of the place were terrified by the tales
he told of Moses. Either by the Higher Criticism, or other
forces, the author of the Pentateuch has since been de-
molished.
Another favourite resort in vacation time was Coombe
Cottage, in the valley of Coombe, between Morwenstow and
Bude. It is an ideal spot. Along the bed of the combe a
little trout stream winds down to the sea, and near the
cottage stands a picturesque old mill. The steep hills on
either hand are clothed with tough, stunted oaks, and a
few miles inland, at the head of the valley, the tall tower
of Kilkhampton Church " stands up and takes the morning."
A break in the great cliffs about half a mile from the cottage
shows a triangle of sparkling sea.
It was in this valley, at the crossing of the brook, that
twenty-five years later Tennyson and Hawker shook fare-
well. [See p. 193.]
The white cottage, with the cross-shaped window, which
Hawker put in, still stands, and the inhabitants of the
valley still preserve traditions of his residence there. They
tell how, after a hilarious evening, some guests of his were
ascending in darkness the steep road through the woods,
when a tall white figure appeared at a gap in the hedge,
22 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
and uttered an unearthly yell. Hawker, knowing every
inch of the ground, had made a short cut at a bend in the
road. When his terrified guests returned to relate their
adventure, he looked out of window with a tasselled night-
cap on his head, and expressed the utmost amazement at
their story.
It was at Coombe Cottage that he wrote the poem which,
if not his finest work, is at any rate the most popular, and
has done more than all the rest to make his reputation.
This was the Trelawny Ballad, or ' Song of the Western
Men.'
r»^ "
^^--^^^^^
- i
'^x*>
CoOMlilC Co'l'lACl'
CHAPTER III
The Trelawny Ballad
Hawker gives the history of his ballad in a letter dated
2 Feb. 1 862 : —
" Yesterday I had a letter from Chambers, Editor of the
Edinburgh Journal and so many periodical works. He
wrote to inquire about the Song of the twenty thousand
Cornish men, I suppose for publication.^ But when I had
to recall dates I confess to a degree of depression unlooked
for from such a source. It was written in Novr. 1824^ —
the Month and year of our Marriage — -going on 38 years
agone — and written in a Cottage in this very Parish where-
in we lived the first year, and whence we went away at the
beginning of 1826 for Oxford without the slightest likeli-
hood of ever returning hither again, whereas in ten years
(1835) I came back to be inducted as Vicar.
" But the history of that Ballad is suggestive of my whole
life. I published it first anonymously in a Plymouth Paper.
Everybody liked it. It, not myself, became popular. I
was unnoted and unknown. It was seen by Mr. Davies
Gilbert, President of the Society of Antiquaries, &c., &c., and
by him reprinted at his own Private Press at Eastbourne.
Then it attracted the notice of Sir Walter Scott, who praised
it, not me, unconscious of the Author. Afterwards Macaulay
(Lord) extolled it in his ' History of England,' and again
' It appeared in Chambers' ' Book of Days,' 7 June 1869, Vol i. p. 747.
= The Stratton Parish Register gives 1823 as the year of his marriage.
23
24 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
Dickens in Household Words. All these years the Song
has been bought and sold, set to music ^ and applauded,
Avhile I have lived on among these far away rocks unprofited,
unpraised and unknown. This is an epitome of my whole
life. Others have drawn profit from my brain while I have
been coolly relinquished to obscurity and unrequital and
neglect."
The paper in which Hawker's poem first appeared was
the Royal Devonport Telegraph and Plymouth Chronicle^
of 2 Sept, 1826. It was headed as follows : —
" Ballad
written at the time one of the Trelawny family was committed
to the Tower, in the reign of James II. The circumstances described
in it are historically true."
As the poem was unsigned, it is hardly surprising that it
should have been taken for a genuine antique. Mr. Davies
Gilbert printed it on a broadside, stating that the song had
been " restored, modernized, and improved by Robert
Stephens \sic\ Hawker, Esq. of Whitstone." ^
He also contributed it to the Gentleman's Magazine for
November 1827. He afterwards acknowledged Hawker's
authorship more fully in his ' Parochial History of Cornwall.'
Hawker himself first claimed the poem by including it in
his ' Records of the Western Shore,' published in 1832.
In his note in ' Cornish Ballads ' he expressly asserts that
he composed the whole song, with the exception of the
choral lines,
" And shall Trelawny die ?
Here's twenty thousand Cornish men
Will know the reason why I "
" These lines," he says, " have been, ever since the imprison-
1 By Miss Louisa T. Clare in 1861, and others. One setting was published
by M^eekes & Co.
2 See Notes and Queries, 30 Jan. I904, p. 83.
SCOTT AND MACAULAY 25
ment by James the Second of the Seven Bishops — one of
them Sir Jonathan Trelawny — a popular proverb through-
out Cornwall."
Scott's allusion to the ballad is quoted by Hawker in his
' Ecclesia ' : —
" I have been still more deeply gratified," he says, " by
an unconscious compliment from the critical pen of Sir
Walter Scott In a note to the 4th volume of his collected
poems, page 12, he thus writes of the ' Song of the Western
Men ' :—
" ' In England, the popular ballad fell into contempt during the
17th century ; and although in remote counties its inspiration was
occasionally the source of a few verses, it seems to have become
almost entirely obsolete in the Capital.
" ' A curious and spirited specimen occurs in Cornwall, as late as
the trial of the Bishops before the Revolution. The President of
the Royal Society of London, Mr. Davies Gilbert, has not dis-
dained the trouble of preserving it from oblivion.' "
Macaulay's reference to the Trelawny ballad occurs in
his ' History of England,' under the year 1688 : —
" Before the day of the trial," he writes, " the agitation had
spread to the farthest corners of the island. From Scotland the
Bishops received letters assuring them of the sympathy of the
Presbyterians of that country, so long and so bitterly hostile to the
prelacy. The people of Cornwall, a fierce, bold and athletic race,
among whom there was a stronger provincial feeling than in any
other part of the realm, were greatly moved by the danger of
Trelawny, whom they reverenced less as a member of the Church
than as the head of an honourable house, and the heir through
twenty descents of ancestors who had been of great note before the
Normans had set foot on English ground. All over the county
the peasants chanted a ballad of which the burden is still remem-
bered :
26 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
" ' And shall Trelawny die, and shall Trelawny die ?
Then thirty thousand Cornish boys will know the reason why ? ' "
So ran Macaulay's earlier account. In later editions of
his History he added : —
"The miners from their caverns re-echoed the song with a
variation :
" ' Then twenty thousand underground will know the reason why.' "
with the following foot-note : —
"This fact was communicated to me in the most obliging
manner by the Reverend R. S. Hawker, of Morwenstow in Corn-
wall."
In a letter to a friend, dated 1869, Hawker says : —
" By your Macaulay Query I infer you have seen a letter
in the Western Morning News, signed 'A Cornishman.' If
so, I hope you have seen the Reviewer's reply wherein the
critic is crushed. He did not seem to know the difference
between the Chorus which I did not claim and the Ballad
which I did. Macaulay's first note appeared in his Book
from ' All over the county ' to ' the Reason why ' of your
quotation. I then wrote him to allege my authorship of all
except the Chorus, which existed, said I to him, with a
various reading ('Underground') ever since the time of
James the 2nd. To this he refers ; but in a letter to me
he thanks me more energetically still, and confesses that he
was thoroughly deceived, as was Sir W. Scott. Macaulay
had seen Sir W. Scott's note on Ballads in his Minstrelsy."
When Hawker spoke of the ballad being praised by
Dickens, he alluded to its appearance as a genuine old song
in Household Words of 30 October 1852. The version
there printed was taken, the editor says, " from the accurate
recollection of one of Mr. Davies Gilbert's friends, who lost
THE TETCOTT HUNTING BOOK 27
the copy entrusted to him, but happily retained every word
of it in his memory." Memory, however, is a dangerous
work of reference, and this version ^ differs materially from
the original.
The following two letters were addressed to the Editor of
Willis's Current Notes : —
" Morwenstow, Cornwall. Novr. iv., 1853.
" Sir,
" In reply to your kind note I beg to say that not
a trace of the original Trelawny Ballad, beside the two lines
of the Chorus which are incorporated in my Song, have
ever turned up. There is a variation in that, the Chorus,
hardly worth noting, but it runs —
" ' There's twice Ten Thousand under ground,' &c.
The probable sources of farther discovery known to me, but
unexamined for lack of opportunit}^ are ' The Book ' at St.
Michael's Mount, filled with Cornish Mem'da., and the
Tetcott Hunting Book, which belonged to old Mr. Arscott,
an ancestor of Sir W. Molesworth, a famous Foxhunter in
his day, and Hero of a MS. Song, penes me, never printed,
called 'Arscott of Tetcott.' [See page 250] My life is so
apart from the world that I am not conversant with
Current Notes. Is it a vehicle for }.I.SS., or what ?
" I will write to Mr. Paul Molesworth and enquire about
the Hunting Book forthwith.
" And, I remain,
" Sir, Yrs. obedly.,
" R. S. Hawker."
I A version almost identical with this is given by Air. Baring-Gould as the
" earliest form " of Hawker's poem.
28 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
" Novr. xi., 1853.
" Sir,
" A friend informs me that among others who
have been deceived into a notion that my Ballad was the
original Song of Jas. the 2nd's time is a Society in London
called, I think, the Percy Society.^ Can you tell me any-
thing about it? If they have stated this in print it should
be contradicted.
" Yrs. Truly,
" R. S. Hawker."
In 1832 Hawker wrote an adaptation of his ballad as
an election song, when Sir Salusbury Trelawny was con-
testing the county. It is to this that he refers in the
following letter to Mr. J. G. Godwin : —
"Novr. v., 1 86 1.
" I send you the enclosed to preserve for a reason. My
Brother, a lawyer of Boscastle, used to sing both my Songs,
this and the original Ballad, at Election and other Festivals.
Hence it came that one of the verses of this the '32 Song
became dislocated and attached as a Chorus to the Ballad
of '24. It annoyed me to find that Mr. Bere in his ' Garland,'
and Walter White in his 'Londoner's Walk', after seeking
from me and obtaining an Author's revised copy of the Old
Ballad, have taken the liberty of annexing a verse of the
later song."
In 1852 he wrote to his brother: —
" Dear Claud,
" There is a Stir with Dickens as to my Songs.
Have you a copy of the Song I wrote for the Old
' The Percy Society included the Trelawny ballad in their volume
'Ancient Poems, Ballads and Songs of the Peasantry of England,' collected
and edited by J. H. Dixon, 1846.
AN INTERESTING DISCOVERY 29
Trelawny's Election with a Tre Pol and Pen Chorus ? If
you have it send it to me by return of Post, that I may
draw up a letter for you to write Dickens to identify it.
He says one of the Trelawny family has written to rob me
of the chorus, T. P. & P. This is shameful. Don't fail to
do as I desire by return. Yr. aff., R. S. H."
There seems to be no evidence whatever that a complete
Trelawny ballad ever existed in 1688, or at any time prior
to Hawker's poem ; indeed, the evidence rather points the
other way.
During Hawker's lifetime no one seems to have doubted
his statement that the refrain belonged to the time of
James II., and referred to Bishop Trelawny's imprisonment.
In 1 89 1, however, an article in the AthencBum (21 Nov.)
threw fresh light on the question.
The writer, Mr. John Latimer, begins by saying that
" The literary antiquaries of the West of England have made
indefatigable but fruitless inquiries to confirm the Rev. R.
S. Hawker's assertion," and he goes on to remark that " a
suspicion seems to have sprung up of late years that the
reverend gentleman was the author, not merely of the poem,
but of the burden upon which he professed to found it."
Mr. Latimer then mentions a discovery which he made
while searching a file of local newspapers. In the Bristol
Journal of 25 July 1772, appeared an " Extract of a Letter
from a Gentleman at Savanna La Mar to his Friend at
Kingston," narrating the reception of the Governor, Sir
William Trelawny, when on a tour through Jamaica. The
writer of this letter says : —
"About a century and a half ago \i.e., in 1627] upon some
particular state commotions, one of Sir William's ancestors was,
on wrong suspicions of the Government, sent to the Tower of
London, and it was declared in Cornwall that he was to suffer
30 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
death. The great attachment of the people in general of that
county was then, as now, so affectionately strong to the ancient
family of Trelawny Castle that the populace of the county got the
following lines published in several places at London, viz. : —
" ' And must Trelawny die ?
And shall Trelawny die ?
We've thirty thousand Cornish Boys
Will know the reason why !
West Looe,' etc.
"This, and some other circumstances, so intimidated, at that
time, some of the greatest personages then at the helm of our
national affairs, that Sir William Trelawny's ancestor was soon set
at liberty, and soon after arrived at Trelawny Castle amid the
joyous acclamations of thousands."
This letter dates back the refrain to the earlier years of
Charles I. Mr. Latimer, after indicating the authentic
source of the writer's information, proceeds to find a his-
torical basis for the " particular state commotions " to which
he refers. John Trelawny (grandfather of the Bishop) was
one of the leaders of the King's party in Cornwall, and on
13 May 1627 was committed to the Tower by the House
of Commons, for certain " offences against the liberty of free
election " and " contempt of the House." About a month
later he was released by order of the King, and created a
baronet.
Mr. Latimer concludes that this event was better cal-
culated to inspire the refrain than the imprisonment of the
bishops, which only lasted a week, and was merely due to
the fact that they had refused to give bail. His conclusion
was accepted by Sir William Trelawny, who, at a Cornish
dinner in London some years ago, expressed the belief that
the refrain was written in 1627, and "dished up again" in
1 688 when Bishop Trelawny was sent to the Tower.
The description of the refrain, in the Jamaica letter.
JOHN LILBOURNE 31
certainly does not suggest that there was then a complete
ballad. But it effectually disposes of the suspicion, recently
revived by a correspondent of the Times^ that Hawker
invented the refrain when he wrote the song, and palmed
off the whole as a relic of the past.
The evidence as to the antiquity of the refrain is
strengthened by the fact that the Trelawny trial was not
the only one in which it was used. A contributor to Notes
and Queries (21st May 1904) quotes from a letter printed
in Thurloe's 'State papers' and dated 21st July 1653, a
similar couplet relating to the trial of one John Lilbourne.
" There were many tickets thrown about," says the letter,
" with these words,
" ' And what, shall then honest John Lilbourne die ?
Three score thousand will know the reason why.' "
We may conclude, then, that Hawker took this tradi-
tional refrain, and wove round it a ballad so genuinely
accordant with the antique spirit as to deceive critics of
the foremost rank. It is only one of the many examples
in his poetry of that marvellous power he had of living in
the past, and breathing its mental atmosphere.
• The Times, Ilth Dec. 1903.
CHAPTER IV
1825-1834
Pompeii — Ordination — North Tamerton — Morwenstow
" O type of a far scene ! the lovely land
Where youth wins many a friend, and I had one ;
Still do thy bulwarks, dear old Oxford, stand?
Yet, Isis, do thy thoughtful waters run ? "
R. S. Hawker.
We left Hawker at the end of the second chapter a
young man of twenty-two, writing his ballad in the
valley of Coombe.
During their undergraduate days, his friend Jeune and
Jacobson both came to visit him in Cornwall. One of
them — it is a little uncertain which — accompanied him on
the famous ' Ride from Bude to Boss, by two Oxford men,'
and assisted at the liberation of the Boscastle swine.
In a letter dated 1867, mentioning his article. Hawker
sa}'s: "These (the two Oxford men) were Jacobson, now
Bishop of Chester, and myself." On the other hand Sir
Francis Jeune says : " My strong impression is that my
father was one of the Oxford men, though I cannot put
my finger on anything to prove it conclusively. M\' father
certainly told me of some such expedition. I should not
be at all surprised if the fact was that both Dr. Jacobson
and my father were with Mr. Hawker on that occasion."
Mrs. Hawker, too, always remembered the tale as told of
32
WINS THE "NEWDIGATE" 33
Dr. Jeune; and Mr. J. G. Godwin, who knew Hawker
intimately, gave Dr. Jeune's name in the foot-note to his
edition of ' Footprints.' Possibly Hawker confused the
two names, in writing so long after the event, or in his
published story varied the facts to heighten the effect.
In 1827 he won the Newdigate ^ at Oxford for his poem
on ' Pompeii,' which he recited in the Sheldonian theatre
on 27 June of that year. His prompter on this occasion
was Mr. Arthur Kelly. Just as he was beginning to recite
he was disconcerted by some hisses among the audience,
but these he soon found were intended for an unpopular
Don on the platform. In speaking of his Newdigate in
after years he used to say that he had no great opinion of
Prize Poems : they were merely exercises ; Bishop Heber's
* Palestine,' he thought, was the only one of any merit.
It has been suggested by Sir Francis Doyle,^ in
language far from complimentary, that Hawker made use
of Macaulay's prize poem ' Pompeii ' written at Cambridge
eight years before. None but internal evidence, however,
is put forward to support the charge. There are, of course,
similarities in the two poems, and in the loca classica con-
sulted for the historical facts ; but this does not amount to
proof of plagiarism. Set down two undergraduates, of the
same period of literary style, to write independent poems
in the same metre, on such a restricted subject, with such
obvious poetical suggestions, and with the same passages
of classical authors to consult for material, and the poems
produced cannot fail to resemble each other. Had the
efforts of the unsuccessful candidates been unearthed, Sir
' In his copy of the University Calendar for 1828 Hawker has put a note
against his name as the Newdigate Prizeman : — " Eheu ! quantum^mutatus
ab illo Hodie : 1840."
- ' Reminiscences and Opinions of Sir Francis Hastings Doyle ' (1813-85)
p. 98.
C
34 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
Francis Doyle would doubtless have had ground for sup-
posing that they had also borrowed from Macaulay.
If Hawker drew inspiration from any other poet in writing
his ' Pompeii,' it was from Schiller, whose lines on the
subject he had translated in 1826. A comparison of
Schiller's lines with those of Macaulay confirms the
supposition that a theme like ' Pompeii ' would suggest the
same treatment to independent writers. If no other argu-
ment were available, Hawker's subsequent, and previous,
achievement in poetry would show that he had no need to
steal from Macaulay or anybody else/
Hawker took his B.A. at Oxford on 14 June 1828. He
was ordained Deacon by Dr. Carey, Bishop of Exeter, on
25 October 1829, and appointed to the curacy of North
Tamerton, near Whitstone. On 3 April 1831, he was
ordained Priest by Dr. Law, Bishop of Bath and Wells.
At North Tamerton Hawker took a cottage, enlarged it,
and named it "Trebarrow," or "a dwelling among the graves."
^' It is on a moor," he writes, " and surrounded by Barrows
or mounds of Pagan Burial before the Christian Era." In
a note to his poem ' Trebarrow ' he relates the discovery of
some relics in one of these tombs.
In Willis's Current Notes for April 1855, there is a note
by Hawker, headed ' Legends on Bells.' " On a bell in
North Tamerton Church, Cornwall, melted and recast about
1829 —
" JESU FULFIL WITH THY GOOD GRACE
ALL THAT WE BECKON TO THIS PLACE."
' Sir Francis Jeune, who possesses Hawker's orignal ms. of ' Pompeii,'
-writes : — " I am perfectly convinced that if there should be any such apparent
plagiarism I should know of it, and Hawker was one of the last of men, I
should say, to plagiarise from any one, least of all from Macaulay." For
Hawker's own ideas about plagiarism see his letters to Mr. J. G. Godwin
on pages 420 and 456, and that to Mr. Somers James of 13th Jan. 1864
(P- 457)-
'*fflV»'-
:^j\
/
i.—JW
^v
if M'WWaWIHIBilM x* /r-.- ^ —rat.. ,,■*
Tamkimon' C
'GYP' 35
The date of the recasting of the bell makes it seem not
unlikely that the lines were by Hawker himself.
Another poem ^ belonging to this period was ' Down with
the Church' (i 831), an electioneering song, written when
Sir R. Vyvyan and Sir C. Lemon were standing for East
Cornwall. The poet asks,
" Shall the gray tower in ruins bow ? "
And answers,
" No ! while the Cornish cry can ring —
The Vyvyan-cry — ' Our Church and King ' I "
The name of the other candidate was celebrated in a
different vein. As in the case of Trelawny, however, only
a snatch of the chorus has been preserved :
" We'll squeeze the lemon dry, my boys !
And throw away the rind."
Whether as a memento of his Boscastle achievement, or
in imitation of St. Anthony of Padua, Hawker kept as a
pet a black Berkshire pig,^ called ' Gyp.' Gyp was well-
groomed and intelligent, and followed him like a dog in his
parochial visitations. When Mrs. Kingdon, his sister at
Whitstone, objected to Gyp coming into her house, Robert
would retort, " He's as well-behaved as any of your family."
His young nephews and nieces at Whitstone were very
fond of their uncle Robert, but stood in some awe of him ;
and it is related of the present Rector of Whitstone that he
was once put in a corner by his uncle, who went away and
" Printed on a leaflet by T. & W. R, Bray, Launceston, dated z May
1831, and signed "A Man."
2 Another Parson-poet of the west country, with whom Hawker has a good
deal in common, had a similar companion. Robert Herrick, when vicar of
Dean Prior, kept a tame pig which followed him about, and which he had
taueht to drink out of a silver tankard.
36 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
forgot all about him ; but the boy refused to come out, and
remained there for hours till " Uncle Robert " was summoned
to break the spell he had cast.
One day a labourer at Tamerton came to Hawker in great
trouble, saying that a sack of potatoes had been stolen from
his garden, and would his Reverence kindly help him to
discover the thief It was a Sunday, and they were on their
way to morning service. " Well, well," said Hawker, " we
will see about it after Church." He was taking the sermon
that day, and he preached on the eighth commandment.
" And now," he said, " I have a sad tale to tell. One of our
neighbours has missed a sack of potatoes from his garden,
and the thief is even now sitting among you. He has a
feather on his head ! " A man in the congregation was ob-
served surreptitiously to put his hand to his head, and so
the guilt was brought home.
One or two letters of Hawker's written at this period are
still in existence. The following was addressed to Sir
Thomas Acland : —
"Dear Sir,
" Mrs. Hawker and her sisters have resigned their
tenures at Efford to yourself You will therefore acquit me
of personal motive and I trust intrusion if I say a few words
to you about old Bude. You would never I am sure con-
sciously permit uncourteous conduct much less injustice
under the shield and sanction of your name, yet both are
committed beneath that influence from day to day. You
are aware that strong divisions exist in the Brighton of the
West and it may have been instilled into your ears that
political feelings are their origin and end. It is not thus :
party variance is a mere accident of the schism. My
Brother Tom committed the offence of proposing to practice
"SPITES OF THE VILLAGE SPIRE" 37
as a Surgeon in that Country — hinc illae lachrymae. He
was guilty of the additional crime of some success. He
employed the first fruits of his influence in the promotion
of all measures which went to the benefit of Bude — a Fair
which originated with him and his Friends sustained —
other schemes which he was compelled to abandon from
the injurious treatment of men who employed your influence
or name — servants were threatened with discharge who
employed him — tenants with loss of favour. This you
did not sanction. . . . Mr. , an upright and
honourable young man whom I am proud to call my
relative — than whom no one is more respected in Bude or
has more sustained the place — your agents have stipulated
with all over whom your employment or that of others has
given them a little brief authority that they shall have no
mercantile transactions with Him. Hewett has refused
access to Carts employed by or for him over your Bridge
— his workmen have been commanded not to cross it on
foot — continual insult and injury harass him because as
your agent informed his relatives he had supported in some
petty contest Mr. Thos. Hawker.
" To conclude (for I find myself writing a discourse
rather than a letter) I feel some interest in that Haven of
Bude — Mrs. Hawker and her Sisters more. The scene of
laying the foundation of St. Michael's Chapel would have
been to me one fraught with touching recollections personal
and professional. The family at Whitstone would have
been glad to have been there. Being under the ban of a
clique (and such an one) although notices were sent
throughout the night to all who were deemed worthy the
selection of your agents, we did not hear of it, and then
only by accident, until it was over. Sir T. Acland is too
honourable to have participated in the injustice of the two
former cases — too kindhearted to have caused unnecessary
38 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
annoyance in the last. As prophet of the past I venture to
rem[ark that?] those whom it appears people took for
[ ? Benefactors] of Bude never yet promoted the advantages
of that place : as historian of the future I mention that they
never will. Forgive me any warmth I may have shewn.
You will say I write from pique. It is true — I am piqued
but nevertheless
" Yours truly & obedly.,
"R. S. Hawker
" Trebarrow.
" Feby. xxv., 1834."
On 29 Jany. 1833, Hawker's father was instituted Vicar
of Stratton, where he had been curate for some twenty-five
years. Mr. Baring-Gould says that the living had been
previously offered to Hawker, but that he had declined to
become vicar where his father was curate, and had written
to the Bishop of Exeter urging his father's claims. It seems
improbable that the Bishop would propose to place a son
in a position of authority over his father. Mr. Harris of
Hayne, in his article previously mentioned, gives a different
account of the matter, and quotes the Bishop as saying, " I
was gratified to find that the nomination of Mr. Jacob
Hawker would afford such general satisfaction ; but I had
already made up my mind."
Mr. Jacob Hawker, in addition to being a popular man,
had the family gift of eloquence, in an even higher degree
than his father, the Vicar of Charles, or his son, the Vicar of
Morwenstow. It is said that the greatest intellectual treat
which the congregation of Stratton could enjoy was to hear
a sermon written by Robert Stephen Hawker and preached
by his father.
Preferment for the father was soon followed by preferment
for the son.
PREFERMENT 39
Writing to Mr. J. G. Godwin in 1862, Hawker says: —
" When I won * Pompeii ' it was the first year after the
limit of fifty Hnes was taken off. H. Exon, then Rector of
Stanhope, had told [his son] William [Phillpotts] to be sure
to bring home with him the Prize * Newdigate.' He carried
mine with him, and his father read it aloud to the family
that evening. When he came to Exon, Bishop, he said
to me, ' It gave me real delight to find your name entered
in the diocese book by Bishop Carey, for early preferment.*
Now I should tell you that I was ordained Deacon by
Bishop Carey, and that the examining chaplain, Bartholo-
mew, so reported of me that I had to read the Gospel in the
Ordination Service, and in my interview with the Bishop he
said, ' We don't give livings to men who write prize poems,
Mr. Hawker, unless they pass examinations such as you
have passed also.' I, in my vain-glory, thought this a very
emphatic kind of praise, and I commit it to you for con-
verse in the growing generation when I am not."
The late Mrs. R. S. Hawker, writing after her husband's
death, says : —
" In a secret drawer of his Escritoire I found a sealed
envelope endorsed — 'The Gift of Morwenstow, 1834.*
It contained these two letters : —
"Exeter. 15 Deer. 1834.
"My Dear Sir,
" The Vicarage of Moorwinstow in your neighbour-
hood being vacant, I would offer to present you to it, did I
not think that it is not a Parish suited to you. I would
rather see you placed in some district where access to con-
genial society would be easy to you, and where you would
be justly appreciated, and, by being more in tone with
things around you, would also be more useful, with God's
blessing, to others. I have not, however, bestowed the liv-
40 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
ing elsewhere, so that if I am mistaken about you (which I
think after our last conversation is not likely) inform me
by an early post.
" I am, my dear Sir,
" Your faithful friend and Bishop,
" H. Exeter.
" Revd. R. S. Hawker."
"Exeter. 23rd Deer. 1834.
"My Dear Sir,
" It occurs to me as possible that you may be ex-
pecting another letter on the subject of Moorwinstow. I
write therefore to say that, if you accept it with as much
pleasure as I offer it, we are both very well contented. If
you will come hither some time next week, say Tuesday or
Wednesday, I shall have the pleasure of collating you.
" In haste,
" Yours sincerely,
" H. Exeter.
" Revd. R. S. Hawker."
In the original manuscript of Hawker's poem, ' The
Tamar Spring,' there is a stanza which he omitted from the
public version. It is this : —
" Let but one Name be cherished — his who gave
Home to a Western heart on this dear shore,
Where scenes long lov'd in youth still haunt the wave,
The ancient Seawinds sigh — the native Waters roar."
In these lines Hawker evidently expresses his gratitude to
the Bishop, and his own affection for the scene of his future
ministry.
CHAPTER V
1834
The Parish of Morwenstow
•' Genius Loci.
Numa drank inspiration in the shaded cave by the gushing rill.
Christ sate down by the well of His fathers, and his doctrine
flowed in the similitude of a fountain, whereof whosoever drank
should thirst no more."
Hawker's Note-books.
We cannot understand a man's life and character, unless
we first realise his surroundings, and in Hawker's case the
importance of these influences is heightened by the fact that
he was subject to them all his days. He became, as it were,
rooted to the soil of Morwenstow, and for forty years he
seldom crossed his parish boundary.
The parish, when Hawker was appointed to it, was known
as ' Moorwinstow,' and it is so marked on maps to this day,
and even on sign-posts in the parish itself But in 1843
the Vicar had occasion, for the purposes of a lawsuit about
the boundaries of his glebe (see page 168), to make re-
searches into the history of the endowment. He then
unearthed the legend of St. Morwenna, and changed the
spelling to ' Morwenstow,' explaining it as an abbreviation
of ' Morwenna's Stowe,' or station. Morwenna was the
daughter of an ancient King in Wales, named Breachan. In
his article on Morwenstow Hawker followed Leland, but
41
42 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
according to Mr. Baring-Gould there are anachronisms in
his version of the story, arising from the confusion of three
different saints, Morwenna of Cornwall, Modwenna of
Burton-on Trent, and Moninna of Newry. Hawker's
antiquarian studies are remarkable rather for beauty of
thought and expression than for historical accuracy.
Writing to a friend in 1856 he says : — "Did I ever mention
to you the shape of Morwenstow ? The Parish is in form
like a Horse shoe — the two heels (a) and (a) are on the
Cliffs with the Sea beneath them. The toe (d) is towards
the East on the road from Bideford to Bude, and the f is
(c) the Church. From (c) to (d) is 3I miles. From (a) to
(a) is 5 miles of Seashore, and midway between the heels of
the Shoe stand the Church and House, the (v's) are small
clusters of houses which would be called, I suppose, in any
populous or civilized Region, villages.^ My population in
185 1 was 1030, but now reduced by emigration less than
900. The position of the Church, like that of all ancient
Shrines in England, was chosen and fixed on certain prin-
ciples. The Church was placed as nearlyas possible in sight of
the Sea, in memory of Gennesaret and its miracles — of Him
who walked the waters, and who called his apostles from
their nets and their vessels to ' follow him.' Then the
Church was to be a solitary structure — and to stand alone.
Roofs of men have all their human associations, and Houses
' Their names are Cross Town, Gooseham, Shop, Woodford and Woolley.
THE SITES OF CHURCHES 43
recall by their aspect some remembrance of sorrow or Sin.
Therefore said they ' Be the House of God apart' Next
the Forefathers evermore selected the loveliest scenery amid
the Wild — the Rocky Ground — the everlasting Hills — And
they said ' Let us give our fairest and our best to Him who
meant that the Earth should be a Paradise for man.' Last
of all, whereas the First Building in every ancient Parish
was the Church, they placed it afar off from the probable
abodes of men. Like the Altar of the Patriarchs which was
always "■yonder"'' (of Abraham's three days' journey), and the
Church of the Jews a long way from Eleven of the Tribes,
so the most primitive of our churches were evermore at an
intentional Distance from the future people. There was
to be a Church-path to be trodden as the journey of the
worship day — a Road of quiet thought whereon a man might
recall his transgressions and prepare to offer penitence at
God's footstool, and to solicit pardon for the Past. Along
that Church-path, too, the Parent could lead his children ^
by the hand, and instruct them whither they were going
and what for — so that the longer the way the better the
preparation, and the farther the distance the more time for
converse and for thought. An old proverb said, 'The more
footsteps that the Angels count in your Church-path the
better for your Soul.' As far as my own remembrance goes,
I have always found the most distant of my Parishioners
the most frequent and faithful worshippers of all. Nowadays
the usage is to carry the Church (as the silver Shrines of
Diana at Ephesus were carried) to the people : the ancient
usage was to lead the people with gradual and reverent
approach to God — and that by no means to attach merit to
' Cf. Tennyson in 'The Two Voices ' : —
"And in their double love secure,
The little maiden walk'd demure,
Pacing with downward eyelids pure."
44 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
our work of worship, but to avouch our patience, sincerity
and zeal."
It is typical of the pliancy of Hawker's symbolical ex-
planations, that while in this letter he says that the sites of
ancient churches were chosen by " the Forefathers," at other
times he would ascribe the choice to Jesus himself.
" I used yesterday in my Sermons," he writes on 31 July
1857, "one of the pious notions of old time. Said the
Forefathers, 'Where did Lord Jesu abide during the 40
days and 40 Nights ? ' Said some — ' He went like thought
from Land to Land — He glided as Angels glide all round
the Earth, and wheresoever he Foresaw in his omniscience
that there would afterward be a Church built and con-
secrated, there the Lord paused the sole of his Foot, and
hallowed it' Said I yesterday, ' What a thought to think
that here the arisen Lord once stood still, and looked along
the Sea, and made Benediction with the print of the nails
on this most Blessed ground.' "
North Cornwall is a spacious and wind-swept land of
bare hills and wooded valleys, with here and there a gray
and pinnacled church tower crowning a distant height, or
rising from the trees in some secluded glen. One striking
feature of the landscape is the scarcity of human habitations.
The lanes wind along between high-banked hedges for
miles and miles, with hardly a cottage to break the solitude-
Morwenstow has a particularly desolate appearance, because
there is no central village.
From the high ground in the centre of the parish can be
seen a vast panorama spreading all around. Far to the
south east appear the tops of the Dartmoor tors, rising dim
beyond Kilkhampton tower. Southward the horizon rises
again in the rugged shapes of Roughtor and Brown
Willy, and the land tapers out into the long line of
coast, broken by the headlands of Cambeak, TintageL
MOKWENSIOW CHL-RCII AM» \"I(A K A( iK
I HF, I.VCII-CAI K
>A11.'
si;. NroKWKN-, n i\\ . whi.ki-. >m r-\\i;i > ki.I'
w i:ki-; i ai i> < >r i loi; m lu \i
THE SCENERY OF MORWENSTOW 45
and Pentire Point, and ending in the rounded dome of
Trevose Head.
The western prospect is one long expanse of water, dotted
with the dark hulls of little coasting vessels creeping along
like insects on a slate. To the north-west, Lundy Island
stands clear-cut against the sky, and just below it appear
the stern brows of the cliffs at Marsland Mouth and Well-
combe. On a calm day the stillness of the air, in all that
brooding space, is broken only by the distant cawing of rooks,
the occasional bark of a dog, or the shout of a farmer at
his morning work.
In summer the colours of the sea and sky, the wealth of
wild flowers in the fields and hedges, the luxuriant under-
growth of ferns and mosses in the woods, the thymy
fragrance of the turf along the downs, the grandeur of the
cliffs and rocks and waves, make of this Western corner of
the land an earthly paradise. At other seasons, when the
spirit of storm is abroad, it is a wild and fearful coast. In
exposed places every tree and shrub ^ leans eastward, beaten
and bent by the force of the sea-wind.
The cliffs at Morwenstow are the the tallest on the Cornish
coast. The beach is accessible only by a steep and peri-
lous path. The hill forming the side of the valley opposite
the church runs out into the stately crag of Hennacliff,
" four hundred and fifty feet," as Hawker puts it, " in perpen-
dicular height." Against this great bulwark of rock beats
the full force of the Atlantic, rolling unbroken from the
distant shores of Labrador.
The church of Morwenstow matches well the austere
solitude where for so many centuries it
" Hath kept watch o'er man's mortahty."
' In one of Hawker's old agricultural books, now in the possession of a
farmer in the parish, is a note in his handwriting of the trees best suited to this
bleak locality. They are — American poplar, Turkey oak, ilex, elder, ash,
Occidental plane, acacia, tamarisk, privet.
46 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
The gray and weather-beaten tower looks out over the
sea, as if in anxious expectation, remembering the dead who
rest beneath its shade. In the words of its poet-priest —
" The storm — the blast — the tempest shock
Have beat upon those walls in vain :
She stands, a daughter of the rock,
The changeless God's eternal fane.
The interior also is massive and simple and strong.
Blue-gray stone and dark oak give the prevailing tones of
colour. Three Norman pillars, round and thick, support
the Northern arcade. Those on the South side, of later date,
are of granite and polyphant stone. Round the capital of
one granite pillar is the inscription, " THIS IS THE HOUSE OF
THE L." The sentence is upside down, and runs from right
to left, whether from illiteracy on the part of the builders,
or for the convenience of celestial readers, it is impossible
to determine. The other granite pillar bears the date 1 564.
The seats are all of old oak, beautifully carved, and on one are
cut the words, " THIS WAS MADE IN THE YEARE OF OUR
LORDE GOD 1 575." Arched ribs of oak sustain the roof,
and the central beams are embossed with various devices,
including Hawker's favourite pentacle of Solomon and
shield of David. His poetical explanations of the archi-
tectural symbolism in the church can best be studied in
his own paper on Morwenstow in ' Footprints.'
When the church was restored in 1884, some mural
paintings were discovered on the chancel walls, one of which
has been preserved and is here reproduced. Expert opinions
differ as to its subject. Some say it represents the Virgin
imparting symbolic nourishment to Saint Bernard : ^ others,
' /^if/f Mrs. Jameson's ■' Legends of the Monastic Orders ' (pp. 144-6). Com-
pare Murillo's picture at Seville of the Vision of St. Bernard ; also tlie third
window on the North side of the choir of Lichfield Cathedral, c. 1530-40,
probably by Lambert Lombard.
I
k>-'-J«-, ;-*3sk]«<*^'
Ml KAi, I'AiNiiNd, msi M\ i.Ri II i\- im: i nwcKi. \v\i.i ^i
MdKW KN-- 1< i\\ < 111 K( II IN iSSo.
-ay tliat it rciire-,-iit. the X'ir-iii Mary !-K-mii- tlir biiildn . .f t in- ' iiaii.r!.
Si. M^ru'enna lile-~iim ilit- u.-~\ pii,-! -. ril tn M. .r\wi~i. .« .
FOREFATHERS OF THE HAMLET 47
Saint Morwenna blessing the first priest who ministered at
her altar. There can be little doubt that Hawker would
have taken the latter view. A third explanation is that it
relates to the story of the unlearned priest who knew no
mass except that of the Virgin Mary, was inhibited by
his bishop and restored by her. This is illustrated in the
Lady Chapel at Winchester Cathedral.
Another large mural painting, which represented St.
Christopher crossing the ford, was unfortunately destroyed
by the workmen engaged on the restoration.
Morwenstow is one of those remote districts where the
centuries have wrought but little change. The same
families of the good old yeoman stock have occupied the
land, and intermarried, for generation after generation. It
is a place where names, and the men who bear them, live
long. A tablet in the church is inscribed to the memory
of one John Shearme of Harscut, the Eleventh John
Shearme successively : " Who departed this Life in the
Year of Our Lord 1771, in the 91st Year of his Age."
Other names such as Brimacombe, Harris, Adams, Mountjoy,
Venning, Cory, Burrow, Trewin, Seldon, Cottle, Jewell,
Cholwill, Kinsman, Cann, Trood, Rouse, Boundy, Manning,
Shephard, Walter, Bray, Tape, Heard, Mugford, Hambly,
Littlejohns, are likewise indigenous to the soil, and recur
again and again in the Parish records, or on the grave-
stones in the old churchyard. During the whole time of
Hawker's incumbency, the Brimacombes tenanted the two
largest estates in the parish, Tonacombe and Marsland.
Tonacombe Manor, the residence of Mrs. Waddon
Martyn, is a perfect specimen of mediaeval domestic archi-
tecture. It is of no great size, but complete in its preservation,
and unspoiled by modern additions. Seen from a distance,
it shows a picturesque cluster of low roofs, gables and
chimneys. From the moment of entering the massive
48 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
gateway, the visitor feels himself transported out of this
twentieth century into the Middle Ages. An old-world air
pervades the whole place.
A door with an old portcullis, and a porter's lodge at the
side, leads into a small courtyard, and the arrow-slits
pierced in the thick strong walls of the lodge indicate that
it was built in times when the house might have to resist
an armed attack.
The interior deepens the illusion that the clock has been
put back several centuries. The sombre hall, with its
great beams overhead, its flagged and sanded floor, its
minstrels' gallery, its mighty open hearth, piled in winter
with blazing logs, its windows like the " tall oriels " of a
dimly-litten chapel, its walls hung with antlered heads of
great beasts slain in the chase, portraits of departed heroes,
rusty weapons, tattered banners, and ancient coats of
arms — all these things combine to banish from the mind
consciousness of the present, and to call up before it " the
brave days of old." Before Hawker came to Morwenstow,
the minstrels' gallery had been partitioned off, and the
beams of the roof hidden by a ceiling. It was he who
pointed this out to the owner, Mr. Martyn, and persuaded
him to remove the partition and the ceiling.
The rest of the house is equally old-fashioned — odd
flights of stairs, winding corridors, and unexpected rooms,
all panelled in dark oak, and sometimes leading one into
another, — an ideal scene for a ghost story. In one of the
upper rooms a narrow loop-hole gives a view of the hall,
by means of which the mistress of the house could enjoy
invisibly those scenes of revelry at which her sex forbade
her to appear.
The design of the grounds and buildings is considered
to be of Saxon origin. There are five courts, and five
gardens. (Compare the end of chapter II. of ' Ivanhoe.')
Interior of the hall
AT ToXACOMBE MaNOR,
showing the Minstrels' (iallery.
THE "CHAPEL" OF'WESTWARD HO!' 49
One of these gardens, called the Pleasaunce, is the scene
of Hawker's legend of ' The First Cornish Mole.'
" Tonacombe," writes its late owner, the Rev. W. Waddon
Martyn, " is mentioned in an old Deed, enrolled in the
Books of the Diocese at Exeter, A.D. 1296, where it is
described as " the three Vills of Tunnacombe." It formerly-
belonged to the Jourdens (Jourdains), and from them has
passed by marriage successively to the " Leys (or Leighs),
alias Kempthornes, Waddons, and now to the Martyns."
Tonacombe is the original of " Chapel " in ' Westward
Ho ! ' which was partly written there. Round the panelled
drawing room are the arms of Ley (or Leigh) and Courtenay.
There is a Chapel House in Morwenstow, but it is of recent
date (about 1800), and has no traditions. Kingsley
adopted the name and applied it to Tonacombe. A writer
in Chambers' Journal says that Kingsley visited Morwenstow
many times, and there met Hawker, who " pointed out to
him the site of the old house of the Grenvilles at Stowe."
Hawker did not consider that the local colour in ' Westward
Ho ! ' was accurate. In 1857 he writes to a friend : — " You
would have grievously failed in your search for the
localities referred to, but by no means identified, in ' West-
ward Ho ! ' The whole Book is an assumption — and vie
judice a failure."
Among the curios at Tonacombe is an old lantern once
in Hawker's possession, and unique in its construction and
its history. It was made for Thomas Waddon of Tona-
combe, who died in 1755. His brother, Edward Waddon,
lived at Stanbury, and their sister. Honor, was the wife of
the Rev. Oliver Rouse, Vicar of Morwenstow. The three
families used to meet regularly at each other's houses for
dice and cards, and what the old song ' Arscott of Tctcott'
describes as
" Gay flowing bumpers and social delight."
D
50 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
In the excess of their merriment the cronies would dash
their glasses on the table, and the broken pieces were pre-
served as a record of the jest. In course of time there was
a goodly collection of these fragments, and in order that
their memorial should not perish the lantern was made, of
solid oak, square, with a pointed roof and little windows
formed of the round bases of the broken glasses and other
pieces cut in the shape of dice, hearts, clubs, diamonds and
spades. Thereafter, when the festive party broke up, those
whose turn it was to walk homeward through the dark lanes
had their way lighted before them by this emblem of their
wit and humour.
There are also to be seen at Tonacombe several massive
old stone vessels, which Hawker called " holy water stoups,"
but which more prosaic persons have explained as corn
measures. Tradition tells that he collected them from
small ruined chapels in the neighbourhood. There were at
one time eleven of these little shrines in Hartland parish
alone. The small cross over the piscina at Morwenstow
came from one of these at Longfurlong.
Other old houses in the parish are Stanbury, Marsland
and East way.
Stanbury was the birthplace of John Stanbury, confessor
to Henry VI., who made him the first Provost of Eton. He
became Bishop of Bangor, and, later, of Hereford. Sir
William Adams, who founded the Eye Infirmary at Exeter,
was also born at Stanbury.
Marsland is a secluded and picturesque farmhouse, and
gives its name to the beautiful valley which there divides
Devon from Cornwall.
Hawker, whose mind was full of uncanny imaginings,
always declared that the place was haunted. There is
perhaps more foundation for the gossip that it was once
haunted by spirits of a liquid nature. One of the barns has
■a*!**.^.
The Waddon Lantrrn, Hawker's
walkin<:j-stick and holy water
stoLijjs, at ToxACCiMHE Maxor.
STOWE 51
a false floor, now disused, but originally constructed for the
storage of " run goods," Mr. Baring-Gould, in his novel
' The Gaverocks,' makes Marsland the home of a relative of
Featherstone the Wrecker, whose spirit is said to be im-
prisoned beneath the black rock in Widemouth Bay. This
legend is the subject of Hawker's poem, * Featherstone's
Doom,'
" The manor of Eastway," says Lysons, " which belonged
to the priory of Launceston, was one of those annexed to
the Duchy of Cornwall (by Henry VHI.) in heu of the
honor of Wallingford, in 1540."
The annals of Morwenstow are probably the poorer from
the loss of Hals's manuscript relating to the parish, although
Hawker somewhere remarks that Hals's Parochial History
of Cornwall contained so many scandals that it was found
" perilous to print and publish," In Carew's ' Survey ' the
name ' Moristow,' or ' Morestowe,' only occurs in certain
lists of assessments in the Hundred of Stratton,
It will not be out of place to mention one more historic
domain in the neighbourhood, which, though not actually
in the parish, lies just beyond the boundary, and is closely
associated with Hawker and his work. Crossing the valley
of Coombe the road from Morwenstow winds up a steep
hill with woods on either hand. Near the top stands a
farmhouse, built on the ruins of departed grandeur, " where,"
in the words of Hawker,
" The heavens come down to rest on the storied hills of Stowe."
In this place have stood, at different times, two mansions
of the Grenville family.
The fame of the warrior sometimes fades and grows with
the fame of the bard who sings his deeds, and many a hero
sleeps unhonoured because unsung — " Carens vate sacro."
52 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
The fame of Sir Richard Grenville, however, is absorbed
and sustained in the verse of Tennyson : —
" But Sir Richard bore in hand all his sick
men from the land
Very carefully and slow,
Men of Bideford in Devon,
And we laid them on the ballast down below ;
For we brought them all aboard,
And they blest him in their pain, that they
were not left to Spain,
To the thumbscrew and the stake, for the
glory of the Lord."
But by Cornishmen the memory of Sir Richard's grandson,
Sir BevilV who fought and died for his King in the Civil
War, is more deeply loved and venerated still. Of him
says Clarendon in his ' History of the Rebellion,' " He was
the most generally beloved man of that country. He was,
indeed, an excellent person, whose activity, interest and
reputation was the foundation of what had been done in
Cornwall, and his temper and affection so publick, that no
accident which happened could make any impression in
him ; and his example kept others from taking anything
ill, or at least seeming to do so. In a word, a brighter
courage and a gentler disposition were never married
together to make the most cheerful and innocent conversa-
tion."
Hawker pays his tribute to Sir Bevill both in prose and
verse. In ' Footprints ' he speaks of him as " the Bayard
of old Cornwall ' sans peur et sans reproche,' " while the
stirring ballad, ' The Gate Song of Stowe,' records in song
his exploits as a Cavalier.
' It is an interesting coincidence, that a descendant of the Grenvilles, and
a friend of Hawker's, Canon Thynne of Kilkhampton, has just made his
illustrious ancestor the subject of a historical romance entitled 'Sir Bevill.'
SIR BEVILL GRANVILLE 53
The prose description of Stowe and its master and his
gigantic retainer, Antony Payne, helps us better than the
poem to realise the greatness of Sir Bevill. It is written in
Hawker's happiest vein of mingled humour, pathos and
geniality, and in literary style is one of the most successful
of that remarkable series of historical romances in little,
wherein he infuses life and colour and voice into the gray
effigies of an elder time.
Antony Payne, a bluff, good-humoured giant, seven-foot-
four in his stockings, but lithe and nimble withal, has been
called ' The Falstaff of the West' The comparison is only
partially appropriate. He had some of Falstaffs wit and
capacity for sack, but a great deal more strength and
nobility of character. He shows rather the attributes of
Hercules rescuing Alcestis.
In one of Hawker's note-books is the following entry,
relating to Sir Bevill's death at the battle of Lansdowne in
1643:—
" AIORWENNA.
" Do you know anything about Sir Bevil Granvile's death ?
" Nothing particular, Sir; only that Lady Grace saw him the
day he died at Lansdowne. He appeared to her and shewed her
his wound at the Cross Road in Stowe Wood just as you turn the
hill. When the messenger arrived who was sent with the news
she had her Widow's Mourning made."
On Sir Bevill's tablet in Kilkhampton Church are in-
scribed these lines —
" Thus slain thy Valiant Ancestor did ly,
When his one Bark a Navy did defy :
When now encompast round. He Victor stood,
And bath'd his Pinnace in his concjuering blood,
Till all his purple Current, dryd, and spent,
He fell and made the waves his monument.
Where shall ye next fam'd Granville's ashes stand .''
Thy Grandsyre fills the Seas and thou ye land."
54 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
As this is a topographical chapter, the following account
of a visit by Hawker and his first wife to the neighbouring
parish of Hartland may be given here. It is one of the
few entries in his note-books relating to events of his daily
life, and it is of interest as suggesting the^origin of his poem,
' The Cell by the Sea.'
" Hartland.
"On the — of June 1838 Charlotte and I drove to Hartland.
Day showery. Saw first Grave-ground and Church. The yard-
paths clean, but the Vicar cherishes for his Horse the grain that
grows from out the Bosoms of the Dead. No green and shaven
mounds like my own Church Yard. By the Chancel door there
is an Altar Tomb, an epitaph, but no surviving name ' — The Words
' Who art thou that judgest another man's servant ? ' &:c. ' Rejoice
not against me, oh mine Enemy,' &:c. Legend. One of the
Doctons of Docton smote his Son in ire with His Sword belt.
The buckle struck him in the temple that he died. Hence
Remorse evermore — hence the nameless Tomb — The fierce
anticipation of reproach &:c.^ Cf. and dl.
" Next the Church. The Screen nearly complete. On its upper
ledge the Singers stood, within the tradition of one generation.
The last Chancel Choir of which I ever found tracery in the West.
The Roof of the Church painted thick with Stars in imitation of
Heaven. I hence perceive why and whence our carved pro-
jections— they are all meant to be starry tokens to meet the lifted
eye with memorials of Heaven.
" We ascended by a narrow stair of stone from the North Wall
into a small low chamber, called still the Monk's Room 3 — it is an
obvious cell. There lived a solitary man. There dwelt Thought
as a Demon and ^Memory arrived in the garb of a Fiend. Long
years, long years — the vigil of the night, the abstinence of the day,
' Mr. R. Pearse Chope says that this is a mistake, as the name "Thomas
Docton," is on the brass.
= Compare Matthew Arnold's Sonnet 'On a Picture at Newstead.'
3 The cell is usually called ' Pope's Chamber.'
THE GERM OF A POEM 55
the solitary yell, the lonely psalm, the Mea Culpa of a goaded
Mind. * Mother of God ! why is thy face so like to hers I slew ?
O let my Hell burn now. Let those who torture come before the
time ' — and then ever and anon in the pauses of the public Mass,
a sob, a wail, an echo from that Wall — a whisper from a Man to
to his Mate, ' It is the Monk.' Kurie Eleeson. Ave Maria.
Pater noster qui es.
" Next we visited the Quay. There saw a singular sight.
There was a deep place of water in the Bay. So men have thrown
out a Pier shaped like a Human Arm to embrace as it were this
depth and to enfold whatsoever vessel may be there. The land
clasps the Ship to her breast. Lime, Coals and Culm imports
there — now and then timber. In the Horizon Lundy looms —
xij miles across to that Granite Isle.
" Next called on Clyde [Vicar of Bradworthy]. Wife ill. Talked
of the tranquillity of his Parish — all at Church at morning, all at
Chapel afternoon. This He termed satisfactory. Oh forgive
them ! they know not what they do — one Fold — where art thou ?
One Shepherd combine ! "
CHAPTER VI
The Parishioners of Morwenstow
" 'Twas a fierce night when old Mawgan died,
Men shuddered to hear the rolling tide:
The wreckers fled fast from the awful shore,
They had heard strange voices amid the roar."
" My people," writes Hawker in his ' Remembrances of a
Cornish Vicar,' with reference to the earlier years of his
incumbency, "were a mixed multitude of smugglers,
wreckers, and dissenters of various hue. A few simple-
hearted farmers had clung to the grey old sanctuary of the
church and the tower that looked along the sea ; but the
bulk of the people, in the absence of a resident vicar, had
become the followers of the great preacher ^ of the last
century who came down into Cornwall and persuaded the
people to alter their sins. . . . Mine was a perilous war-
fare. If I had not, like the apostle, to 'fight with wild
beasts at Ephesus,' I had to soothe the wrecker, to persuade
the smuggler, and to 'handle serpents,' in my intercourse
with adversaries of many a kind."
Wesley himself, in his Cornish journeys, does not appear
to have ever stopped at Morwenstow, though he often
preached at St. Gennys, a few miles down the coast.
There is an entry in his journal — " I rode to Mary Week,
and preached on the side of a meadow newly mown, to a
deeply attentive people." And on the next day, "I rode
to Bideford, but did not reach it till after 5, the hour ap-
' John Wesley.
56
BILL MARTIN 57
pointed for my preaching." On this ride he probably
passed through Kilkhampton, where his former pupil,
Hervey, had conceived his ' Meditations among the Tombs,'
and also through the outskirts of Morwenstow. Matthew
Arnold, though he had a great admiration for Wesley,
says : — " A company of Cornish revivalists will have no
difficulty in tasting, seeing, hearing and feeling God
twenty times over to-night, and yet be none the better for
it to-morrow morning." The humbler disciples of the
great Itinerant in the Cornish villages, according to
Hawker, were mainly impressed with Wesley's teaching as
to the bodily witness of the spirit, termed by Hawker " a
spasm of the ganglions," and held to cover a multitude of
sins. The great grass amphitheatres of Cornwall, once the
scene of rustic plays, were used by Wesley and his fol-
lowers for open-air sermons ; and, in like manner, the
dramatic propensities of the Cornish mind were diverted
into religious channels. When plays were condemned,
they gathered together in cottages and sheds, or on the
village green, to listen to the exhortations of the more
eloquent and fervid spirits.
One Bill Martin was a shining light in Coombe Valley
some fifty years ago. A neighbour who remembers him
writes : " He was a strange character, a wild sort of
customer, drinking and fighting before he became con-
verted and joined the Bible Christians. He had frequent
personal encounters with Satan, but always vanquished
the enemy by prayer. Once when he went to see a
person dying, the Evil One followed him, and on throw-
ing his arms back he could 'hear the Devil scrich.' In
chapel he would call out, ' Don't roost on me with thee
black wings !' He had been a fighting man, but I have
heard a tale, which I believe is correct, illustrating his
changed character.
58 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
" There was a show at Kilkhampton, and Bill was going
about, as was his wont, shouting and praising the Lord.
One of the showmen told him that if he did not leave off
shouting he would give him a smack on the face. Bill did
not desist, and the man struck him on one side of the
face.
" * Strike the^^other side, my dear,' said Bill, turning the
other cheek.
" Bill Martin was a mason, and I believe was employed
when Morwenstow Vicarage was built."
Another native annalist writes : " Long Bill Martin and
John Pomeroy, who was a very short man, used to hold
meetings in Coombe and neighbouring villages. As they
entered a cottage one would shout, ' Draive the devils out
of this house ! ' and the other would shout ' Amen ! ' The
short man would give an address first, and a three-legged
stool would be placed for him to stand on. When he'd
finished he'd step down, and Long Bill Martin (who always
forgot that he was tall enough without) would step up on
the stool and up his head would go bang against the
rafters. Poor Bill would get down quietly, rubbing his
pate, and beginning what he had to say in a low tone,
gradually warming to the subject till you could hear him
from one end of the village to the other."
Once, after a long drought, a preacher offered up a
prayer for rain. Sure enough, that same night, the rain
came down in torrents, as though the doors of heaven had
been opened. It poured in such floods, and lasted so
long, that the people were disgusted. When the flock
assembled again, the preacher took occasion to remonstrate
with the Almighty.
"When us axed for rain, O Lord," he said, "us meant
just a little dapper little shower. But as for this, yu knaw,
why, 'tes simply redeclous ! "
RESURRECTION MORNING 59
Another local story relates how a certain man was going
home on a dark night, after liberal potations, and some-
how wandered into the churchyard. "There was a open
grave," says the narrator, "where zomebody was gwain to
be berried next day, zo 'e spralled awver a twig or zome-
thin' an' vailed rat into this yur open grave, an' there 'e
lied an' went to slaip. Nex' mornin' 'e got up an' luked
out awver. ' Aw,' 'e zaith, ' Resurrection mornin', I zee,
an' a'm fust up.' "
There was a friendly rivalry in the parish between the
church-people and the dissenters. A Wesleyan said one
day to the Vicar's churchwarden, "We are thinking, Mr.
Cann, of enclosing the chapel yard as a grave ground, as
there appears to be a difficulty to get the funerals con-
ducted by the Vicar at times to please the Nonconform-
ists." " Ah ! " replied the orthodox churchman, " I should
not like to be buried at the chapel, because we shall all
have to be judged at the Church, and 'twould be so far to
walk on Resurrection morning."
The following anecdote illustrates the doctrinal capaci-
ties of the rural mind. An old man, a staunch church-goer,
was describing his experiences at the Communion service.
" 'Twas Sacrament Sunday," he said, " and three of us
stayed for the Sacrament, and we went up and kneeled
down, Mrs. Hawker first, Tom next, and I was at the end,
when Mr. Hawker came and said, ' William, you come and
kneel in the middle : ' then Tom was at the end, and was
the last man. The Passon then brought the Cup to Mrs.
Hawker and she drank : then he brought it to me, and the
Passon held the Cup so tight that I could scarcely taste it.
Then he gave the Cup to Tom, and what did old Tom do ?
Why he drank the lot ! — and to be served like that ! I'll
never go to Sacrament no more."
The church-going people in the parish were of course in
6o LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
high favour at the Vicarage, and those who held any paro-
chial office were fully conscious of their dignity.
There is a story current in Morwenstow of an old man
who was at one time Parish Clerk. His wife used to wash
the Parson's surplices. One evening her husband came
home from a prolonged visit to the village inn. She began
to rate him soundly. After the genial company he had
just left he found her conversation depressing, so he said,
" Look yere, my dear, if yu doant stop, I'll go straight
back again." She did not stop, and he left the house.
But his wife was equal to the occasion. She slipped on
the Parson's surplice which she had just been ironing, and
ran by a short cut to a gate further up the road. As he
walked along in the darkness, Mr. B. was suddenly con-
fronted by a motionless white figure standing in his path.
He was terrified, but at last he remembered his official
position, and the thought gave him courage.
" Avide, Satan ! " he said, in a thick, slow voice.
The figure made no answer.
"Avide, Satan, avide!" he shouted again. "Doant 'e
knaw I be Clerk of the Parish, bass viol player, and taicher
of the zingers ? "
When this announcement failed to impress the appari-
tion, Mr. B. turned tail and fled. The ghost also returned
to the house, by a short cut, and Mr. B. found his wife in
the kitchen calmly ironing the Parson's surplice. He did
not return to " The Bush " that night.
The loneliness of the country, and the moaning of the
wind and sea by night, seem to favour the telling of ghost
stories.
Robin Clift, a painter, was up to Cross Town one even-
ing, having a glass with some other men at " The Bush."
He had with him his white-washing brush and his pail.
The talk turned on ghosts, and some one remarked that
SMUGGLING DAYS 6i
the Devil had been seen about the lanes in the shape of a
black dog. " If I see un," said Robin, whose potations
had lent him courage, " I'll gie un a touch o' whitewash
for the gude of his saul." On his way home, sure enough,
Robin encountered a black dog near Eastaway, and struck
at it with his brush, whereupon the animal leapt upon his
back. He could not shake it off, but rushed along in the
darkness, yelling with terror. As he went, the load on his
back grew heavier, until he could hardly move. At last
he reached the gate of Eastaway, and staggered down the
drive to the house. He pulled the bell with all his force.
Directly the door was opened, the creature jumped to the
ground and disappeared. The maid-servant shrieked and
fell in a faint. " Her heart," it is said, "jumped clean out
of its case, and her was never well afterwards,"
Though the days of smuggling have passed away, the
inhabitants of the coast have many a yarn to spin about
the exploits of their ancestors. The gauger, or exciseman,
had to be very smart and vigilant to outwit his wily adver-
saries, for the saying is that it takes a Jew, a Yankee,
and a heathen Chinee together to get the better of a
Cornishman, On one occasion, as the story goes, " some
smuggled Brandy come in to Ma'sland Mouth, and the
exciseman come round to search some of the farms,
" ' Have you any brandy kegs on your place ? ' says he to
one old farmer.
" ' Keg ? What's that ? one-bow tub ? two-bowed tub ?
drapper ? '
" ' No, that isn't it : we shall have to search for it'
" Zo they got up'n barn an' there was a zess of corn one
end o' the barn. The exciseman said he must see if there
wasn't a keg under it. Zo they begun turnin' o't back, an'
the farmer took a peek (pike) an' went helpin' too for 'is
life ; an' zo, when the farmer did'n seem to be feared o'
62 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
nort, they zaid 'twas no use turnin' back no more o't, there
wad'en no Brandy there. Zo they left, but the keg o'
brandy was to bottom o' the 'eap all the time."
An old Morwenstow man says, " In former times Mars-
land Mouth, Duckapool and Stanbury Mouth were rare
places for smuggling. There was great caves where
hundreds of kegs could be stored. When my father had
the farm of Cory, the floor of a barn fell in, and there was
a great hollow underneath. There must be many such
caves still hidden."
One of the best-remembered wrecks was that of the
Eliza of Liverpool. The cargo consisted of provisions,
wine and clothing, and a local rhymester expressed the
common sentiment of those times in a long ditty, of which
two lines are still repeated in the neighbourhood —
" The Eliza of Liverpool came on shore,
To feed the hungry and clothe the poor."
When the casks of wine were washed in, they were speedily
broached, and the contents drawn off in the first utensils
that came to hand — teapots, kettles, jugs, and anything
else which the inhabitants had snatched up in their hurry
on hearing the joyful news. One old woman, named
Fanny, "a reg'lar ole character" in those parts, was lying
on the top of a pebble-ridge near some bales of cloth.
Passers-by laughed and said, " Old Fan's tight 'nough."
Presently she was seen rolling over and over down the
sloping beach with one of the bales winding itself round
her as she went. The coastguard in charge of the wreck-
age was so amused at her cleverness that he let her go off
with the stuff and said nothing about it. "Old Fan was
not so drunk after all."
It is said down in Cornwall that " the folks on the coast
taich their children to zay in their prayers night-times,
"SARCH 'IS POCKETS" 63
* God bless Father 'n Mother, an' zend a ship ta shore vore
mornin'. ' "
"They all like wrecks," says a native of the district.
*' When the Eliza came in ta Warren gutter the vokes in
Coombe Village was all very busy : they'd got a lot o' gay-
coloured prints : the women used it for frocks and blinds
and patched quilts and any mortal thing. Old Betty Gist
zaid, ' Only look see yur sose I'm 'Liza all over. I got
body an' sleeves o' one zort an' skart anether.' They got
a lot o' tay tu, an' the policeman come to search the
village, but thej-'d got it all ta heed-a-peep ; they'd carried
it up in the woods ta back o' the 'ouses ; zome would carry
zome things up in the cliff and heed it away and go back
arter anether load, couldn' stay to go 'ome way't ; others
would lie watch and stall one load while they vetched
anether."
A story is told of a guileless curate, new to Cornwall,
who found the body of a man washed on shore. He
rushed off to obtain medical help, thinking that life might
not be quite extinct. Meeting a native, he asked in
excited tones, '* What do you do when you find a man
apparently drowned ?" " Sarch 'is pockets," was the calm
reply.
Hawker has preserved, in Tristram Pentire, a type of
those strange characters whose spiritual welfare was
entrusted to his charge.
" Poor old Tristram Pentire ! How he comes up before
me as I pronounce his name ! That light, active, half-
stooping form, bent as though he had a brace of kegs upon
his shoulders still ; those thin, grey, rusty locks that fell
upon a forehead seamed with the wrinkles of three-score
years and five ; the cunning glance that questioned in his
eye, and that nose carried always at half-cock, with a red
blaze along its ridge, scorched by the departing footstep
64 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
of the fierce fiend Alcohol, when he fled before the rein-
forcements of the coast-guard.
" He was the last of the smugglers ; and when I took
possession of my glebe, I hired him as my servant-of-all-
work, or rather no-work, about the house, and there he
rollicked away the last few years of his careless existence,
in all the pomp and idleness of 'The parson's man.' He
had taken a bold part in every landing on the coast, man
and boy, full forty years ; throughout which time all kinds
of men had largely trusted him with their brandy and their
lives, and true and faithful had he been to them, as sheath
to steel.
" Gradually he grew attached to me, and I could but
take an interest in him. I endeavoured to work some
softening change in him, and to awaken a certain sense of
the errors of his former life. Sometimes, as a sort of con-
descension on his part, he brought himself to concede and
to acknowledge, in his own quaint, rambling way —
" 'Well, sir, I do think, when I come to look back, and
to consider what lives we used to live, — drunk all night
and idle a'bedall day, cursing, swearing, fighting, gambling,
lying, and always prepared to shet (shoot) the gauger, — I
do really believe, sir, we surely was in sin ! ' "
The anecdote that follows is taken from Hawker's note-
books. He afterwards worked it into his article ' Hola-
combe ' in ' Footprints ' : —
" The old John Kinsman, Nicholas's father, was at work very
early one Morning in the Summer at the Quarry at Reed Rack.
A Raven hovered over him in the air a long time, and croaked,
but as these Birds were common there he thought nothing of it
except that the Bird seemed to wish to be taken notice of. At
last he saw the Raven coming up from the Beach with something
in its beak which it dropped at his feet where he was at Work.
He picked it up and found it to be a candle. He immediately
THE RAVEN AND THE WRECKER 65
inferred that some candles had been washed on shore from a
Wreck, and leaving his tools in the quarry went down. He found
Candles on the Shore and saved them. But on his return to the
Quarry he saw that the Rock had fallen, buried and crushed his
tools and covered with tons of Stone the spot where he would
have been at Work.
" N.B. — He was a noted Wrecker, which the Raven seems to
have known and to have chosen his admonition accord-
ingly.
" Cf. The frequent warning by this Bird to the Miners of places
about to fall."
The people of Morwenstow, sixty or seventy years ago,
did not often resort to medical aid. The doctor's place
was usually taken by some elder wise in herbs, and many
spells and charms were in constant use.
The following are copied from the manuscript of an old
parishioner : —
"For Stenting of Blood.
" As Christ was born he was born in Bethlehem and was bap-
tized in the river in the fair water Jordan this water was wild and
rude with a rod still it stood and so pray Christ (51st psalm for
thrush) grant the blood may stop in the name of the Father of
the Son and of the Holy Gost."
"Blessing for a Sting of a Longcriple (Snake),
Repeated 3 Times.
"Vender under a halsin mote there lies a great Braget worm
9 Duble and from 9 duble to 8 Doble 7 doble and to 6 doble
5 doble and from 5 doble to 4 doble and to 3 doble and to
2 doble and to i doble and to no doble in the name of the
Father and the son and the holy gost."
Hawker himself adopted some of these native practices.
Whenever he met anyone who, as he thought, had an evil
e
66 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
eye, he would move the fingers of his left hand into a
certain position supposed to act as a countercharm. The
first and fourth fingers were held straight and stiff, the
second and third bent inwards on the palm, with the thumb
folded across them.
In one of his note-books is a charm to cure the thrush.
''Carry the child," it says, "to a running stream ; pass a
thread three times over its tongue, and cast it (the thread)
into the water, repeating, ' Out of the mouth of babes and
sucklings hast thou ordained strength.' "
Other charms from the same note-book are : —
For Sleepy Foot.
Foot, foot, foot is fast asleep :
Thumb, thumb, thumb in spittle we steep,
Crosses three we make for to ease us,
Two for the thieves and one for Christ Jesus.
For the Cramp.
The devil is tying a knot in my leg :
Mark, Luke and John, unloose it, I beg.
Crosses three, etc.
To Make Butter Come.
Come, butter, come,
Come, butter, come,
Peter's at the gate.
Waiting for a buttered cake,
Come, butter, come.
Come, butter, come.
"Cornish superstition," writes a native of Morwenstow,
"has not quite died out yet. Several people around here
will not on any account wash bedding in the month of
May, as it will wash one of their family away ; neither will
ILL-WISHING 67
they buy a brush in May, as that will sweep one of their
family away. A gipsy told someone the other day that
they don't carry many brushes with them through May, as
there was no sale to them. They refuse to burn the Elder
tree because it will bring bad luck. If any one dies some-
one takes a shovel and lifts up the hives of bees from their
stands when the corpse is being carried from the house,
or they tie a piece of crape around each hive ; otherwise,
they tell you, the bees would die ; or if the dead person
had a favourite plant in the window, that must have crape
tied round the pot or it will die. They kill their pigs at
the growing of the moon. The meat doesn't shrink so
much in the boiling as it would if the moon was going
back. If the cock crows close to the door, there are friends
coming. I heard Mary Heard of Duckpool say, ' 'E come
rat in the door an' crowed. My gor, I thought tu mezel,
I an't got nort in 'ouse nether, so I 'ad ver move me stumps.
I closed in the stow (stove) an' shoved in a dish o' roast
tetties an' wet up a mite o' cake, an' just vore dinner time
sure 'nough in walked Liz.' "
Another tale relates to the practice of ill-wishing. In
most of the remote parishes in Cornwall there was an old
woman who had the reputation of being a witch and
possessing the evil eye, wherewith to work harm upon the
pigs and poultry and cattle of her neighbours. Her dark
operations were counteracted by the charms of the White
Witch, who generally lived in a neighbouring town, and,
for a fee, would supply antidotes and incantations.
The witch of Morwenstow was an old dame named
Sally Found. Her husband, Dick Found, took his name
from the circumstances of his arrival in the parish.
Hawker used to tell how, late one night, along a lonely
road, wheels were heard approaching, and a carriage drove
up, stopped a few minutes, and then drove off again at
68 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
full speed. Next morning, in an outhouse by the road-
side, a child was found, lying in a basket and dressed in
the most beautiful clothes. The child grew up, and as a
man was remarkable for his finely cut profile and aristo-
cratic bearing. He did not rise, however, above the level
on which fate had placed him, and he and Sally his wife
died in the old poorhouse at Crosstown about thirty years
ago. Before they came to the poorhouse, however, Mrs.
Found was something of a power in the parish, and the
neighbours thought it advisable to "keep the lew side
of Sally." The Parson always made a point of employing
Dick at harvest time ; otherwise, as he said, something
was sure to go wrong.
"Sally Found," the story goes, " kipt ducks, an' ar
did'n like to 'ave other neighbours kipin' ducks, and
William C. livin' opposite sat a 'en on some eggs, an' 'e
reckoned old Sally witched min. You niver zeed zich a
brood o' ducks in your life. Zome was big an' zome was
small, zome was on their backs wi' their legs up in the air
and zome 'ad their veet turned backsifore. One mornin'
they found one o' min daid, zo they brought un in an'
burned 'en."
To burn the heart, or other portion, of an ill-wished
creature, and keep it, was considered to be a pro-
tection against witchery, and this explains the pro-
cedure in these cases.
"The folks to Cross-Watter had a cow die. They
vound 'en lyin' in the 'edge 'olland wi' the horns o' 'en
sticked in the mud, an' the butcher cut 'en open an' 'e zaid
there was nuthin' 't all the matter way'n, zo they saved the
heart o' 'en an' sticked 'en vull o' pins an' burned 'en to a
zinder. They kipt the zinder top the chimley piece ver
yurs an' they did'n 'ave no more bad luck, an' then one
day Missis was dustin' the chimley piece an' come across
UNCLE TONY 69
the old heart, an' ar zaid, what use was it kipin' un there,
zo ar took an' buried un in the garden. Next mornin'
zomebody come in and zaid one o' the cows was bad, an'
Missis purty quickly went out an' digged up th' ol heart
an' brought un in again."
Sally Found was possibly the original of Cherry Parnell
in ' Holacombe ' (a pseudonym for Welcombe), wherein is
related an incident similar to the above.
Uncle Tony Cleverdon was a great " charmer of charms,"
being the "seventh son born in direct succession from
one father and one mother."
"Uncle Tony," writes Hawker, "was like an ancient
augur in the science of birds. ' Whenever you see one
magpie alone by himself,' said he, with a look of inimitable
sagacity, ' that bird is upon no good : spit over your right
shoulder three times, and say —
" ' Clean birds by sevens,
Unclean by twos.
The dove in the heavens
Is the one I choose.'
" Another time Uncle Tony said to me, ' Sir, there is one
thing I want to ask you, if I may be so free, and it is this.
Why should a merry-maid, " that will ride upon the waters
in such terrible storms, and toss from sea to sea in such
ruxles as there be upon the coast — why should she never
lose her looking-glass and comb ? " '
"'Well, I suppose,' said I, 'that if there are such creat-
ures, Tony, they must wear their looking-glasses and
combs fastened on somehow — like fins to a fish.'
"'See!' said Tony, chuckling with delight, 'what a
thing it is to know the Scriptures like your reverence ! I
never should have found it out. But there's another point,
sir, I should like to know, if you please ; I've been bothered
70 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
about it in my mind hundreds of times. Here be I, that
have gone up and down Holacombe diffs and streams fifty
years come next Candlemas, and I've gone and watched
the water by moonlight and sunlight, days and nights, on
purpose, in rough weather and smooth (even Sundays, too,
saving your presence), and my sight as good as most men's,
and yet I never could come to see a merry-maid in all my
life! How's that, sir?'
" 'Are you sure, Tony,' I rejoined, 'that there are such
things in existence at all ? '
" ' Oh, sir, my old father seen her twice ! He was out
once by night for wreck (my father watched the coast like
most of the old people formerly), and it came to pass that
he was down by the duck-pool on the sand at low-water
tide, and all at once he heard music in the sea. Well, he
croped on behind a rock like a coast-guard man watching
a boat, and got very near the noise. He couldn't make
out the words, but the sound was exactly like Bill Martin's
voice, that singed second counter in church. At last he
got very near, and there was the merry-maid very plain to
be seen, swimming about upon the waves like a woman
bathing, and singing away. But my father said it was
very sad and solemn to hear — more like the tune of a
funeral hymn than a Christmas carol by far — but it was so
sweet that it was as much as he could do to hold back from
plunging into the tide after her. And he an old man of
sixty-seven, with a wife and a houseful of children at
home!'"
Once, after a violent thunderstorm, the Vicar came upon
a farmer and his men standing by a dead horse.
"One of the fearful results," I happened to say, "of the
storm and lightning yesterday."
"There, Jem," said he to one of his men, triumphantly,
" didn't I say the parson would find it out ? " " Yes, sir," he
AN OLD VESTRY BOOK 71
said, " it is as you say : it is all that wretched old Cherry
Parnell's doing, with her vengeance and her noise ! "
Cherry had begged a fagot of him a few days before, and
on being refused had "turned away, looking very grany,
and muttering something about ' Hotter for me here-
after.' "
"And I do think, sir," he went on to say, changing his
tone to a kind of indignant growl — " I do think, that when
I call to mind how I've paid tithes and rates faithfully all
these years, and kept my place in church before your
reverence every Sabbath-day, and always voted in the
vestries that what hath a be ought to be, and so on, I do
think that such ones as old Cherry Parnell never ought to
be allowed to meddle with such things as thunder and
lightning."
The conditions of labour in Morvvenstow in the early
part of the last century were very different from the
present. Then there was a surplus of labourers, and the
parish had to pay farmers to employ them ; but now, owing^
to emigration and other causes, labourers are very scarce.
An old vestry book throws some curious light on this
question. The first entry records that —
"At a spichel Vestory held at Crostown this 20th day of
January 1825, it his agreed that Mr. Laurance Cholwill Junr.
his to have Samuel Gilbord as an apprintus and further agreed
that Mr. James Moass his to have William Ham as an ap-
printies and further agreed that Mr. Hugh Ching his to have
Eliza Colwill as an apprinties.
"Signed by us E. Shearm, in the Chair.
John Brimacombe.
John Haydon.
Humphrey Burrow.
Thomas Shiphard.
Richard Baker."
72 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
On August nth, 1827: —
" It was agreed that WilUam Ham's son Richard should be
put up, and the highest bidder should take him as an Appren-
tice, and Mr. William Hambly being the highest bidder, it was
agreed that he should be bound to him."
This recalls the story of a Hartland man, who, about
forty-five years ago, led his wife into Bideford with a halter
round her neck, and sold her for a shilling in the market.
The process was thought quite legal if the seller held the
end of the halter and handed it to the buyer. It is cer-
tainly a simple and inexpensive method of settling questions
as to incompatibility of temper.
On 30 March 1839 —
" Resolved that Mr. Richard Barrow shall have is. per week
with Ann Stanbury, and find her meat and clothes and will
return her if she does not suit him."
An amusing story is told of an old man who belonged to
the working men's club in Morwenstow. He thought that
he had reached the age of seventy, and that he would
thenceforth only have to pay a shilling a quarter instead
of two shillings, so he went to the Vicarage for a certificate
of birth. On looking it up, however, the Vicar found that
he was only sixty-six. When he heard this the old man
flew into a rage.
" Ot 's the use to go by th' ol register ? " he cried. " / go
one year older every year, but th' ol register bideth the
same ! " and he went out muttering, " Wish I never zeed
th' ol register."
Occasionally people who had emigrated returned to their
native parish, and their experiences of foreign travel gave
AN EMBARRASSING SITUATION 73
them a position of great social importance. But some-
times they brought with them strange customs and ideas.
A woman came to the Vicarage one day in great per-
turbation. She was shown into the Vicar's room. " 'Tes
rather a delicate question," she began, " and us doesn't
want to du nothin' but what's right and propper." "Of
course not," said the Vicar. " But what is it ? " " Well,
sir, 'tes this way. Us was settin' playin' swabs [* all fours ']
up to 'The Bush,' an' there was ole Sam who be comed
back from Merriker, smoakin' 'is pipe by the vire. And us
was settin' round the table playin' swabs, and us heard a
kind of ruxlin an' a rustlin, but us didn' take no pertickler
notice of et. An' presently us looked round, an' Lor' bless
'e ! there was ole Sam settin' there zackly as nature made
un, with nothin' at all but his hat on. Us didn' knaw quite
what to du, bein' embrassed, as yu may zay. But ole Sam
looks round an' 'e sez, ' Doant 'e be afraid, my dears. 'Tes
quite the usual thing in Merriker, when a man feels tu
warm, an' nobody minds at all.' ' Well, Mr. Samuel,' sez
I, ' They volks in Merriker may not mind, but yu might
mind ess ' [us]. And now, sir, what I wants to ax your
reverence is, du they really du sech things in Merriker ?
an' what ought us to have dond ? for us doesn't want to
du nothin' but what's right an' propper."
The Vicar's reply is not recorded.
The visits of great folks, such as Sir Thomas Acland, to
see their Vicar, made a great impression on his parishioners.
" There used to be a great man come to see him some-
times," said an old farmer, "well gotten up in years he
was, some kind of a nobleman, as yu might zay, same as
the Bushup, but I can't zackly tell 'e what 'is carlin [call-
ing] was. But the Passon cud du anything with they great
people. There was a varmer named Trewin, many years
ago, and this yeer Trewin wanted a varm to graze bullocks
74 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
upon, without much employ. So a went round all the
parish to get a recommind. No gude. He cudn't get the
varm. Then as he was lyin' a'bed he sez to 'is wife, ' My
dear, 'tes just come in my head there's one I havn't tried.'
'Who's that, Samuel?' says she. ''Tes the Passon,' he
sez, ' and I ought to ha' gone to he first.' So in the mornin'
he went to Passon Hawker, and lo and behold a few days
later he heard that he was accepted, ' on the recommind
of the clergyman of his parish.' Now this yere Trewin had
lent a trap to a man that broke it and didn' pay. So he
passed a vow he would never lend it again. Then one day
the Passon was driving by, and had a misfortune with his
carriage, and he called to Trewin and said, ' Trewin, yu
must lend me your trap.' ' Yu shall have it, zur,' said
Trewin, and he didn' say nothin' about havin' passed his
vow ! "
Many more of these local yarns might be spun, but
it is time to proceed with the main subject of our story.
If some of the foregoing pages seem irrelevant, let it be
remembered that a man's character is largely influenced
by the people among whom he lives. Hawker never took
the impress of what he himself calls "the smoothing-iron
of the nineteenth century," but (again in his own words, as
applied to the Cornish clergy of an earlier age) " became
developed about middle life into an original mind and man,
sole and absolute within his parish boundary, eccentric
when compared with his brethren in civilised regions, and
yet, in German phrase, ' a whole and seldom man ' in his
dominion of souls."
CHAPTER VII
1835-1837
The Making of Morwenstow — The Vicarage — The
ScHOOi — Coombe Bridge
"Welcome! wild rock and lonely shore,
Where round my days dark seas shall roar ;
And thy gray fane. Morwenna, stand
The beacon of the Eternal Land."
When Hawker came to Morwenstow the place was, ecclesi-
astically speaking, a wilderness. The old vicarage, which
stood close to the south-west corner of the church, just
above the spot where a stile now leads from the churchyard
into the fields towards the sea, was in ruins from long dis-
use, owing to the system of plurality of livings. There had
not been a resident Vicar for more than a century.
" When," writes Hawker, " I was collated in 1834 to this
Living by the Bishop it was with the stipulation, ' You will
have to build a New House on the Glebe, Mr. H.' "
He and his wife took up their abode " in a hired cottage
of two rooms," and in this primitive establishment they
lived for some five years. Writing to a friend in 1856, he
says : — " Full of hope and burning with zeal, I was about
to accomplish great things. My parish (the Methodist
Preachers were so prosperous here that one of them told
me on my arrival that Morwenstow was the Garden of their
Circuit) — my Parish, I say, was to become a model on the
Cornish Coast."
75
ye LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
The second Mrs, Hawker, writing an account of these
early days, from what her husband had told her, says : —
" So, in the midst of much opposition, he set his back to
the burden, and the result was that he made Morwenstow.
He used to be fond of telling a story, how the little daughter
of a certain influential neighbour said to him one day —
* Mr. Hawker, what did Father mean by saying he would
rather you had been made Archbishop of Canterbury than
Vicar of Morwenstow ? ' "
" His first work was the building of the bridge in the
valley of Coombe. It is called ' King William's Bridge,'
and an inscription records that
" ' Toward the erection of this bridge, built by subscription,
in the year of human redemption 1836, his most gracious
Majesty King William the Fourth gave the sum of Twenty
Pounds.
' Fear God ! Honour the King ! '
But the true legend and superscription would be, that, in
order to save life — for many men and much cattle had
perished in the stream — Robert Stephen Hawker took
upon himself the chief cost of the bridge, and let not his
left hand know what his right hand had done. And this
was a sample of all his doings at Morwenstow.
" The church," continues Mrs. Hawker, " was rescued from
a state of Puritan desecration, and large sums of money
spent upon it, all coming from one source— one hand. Up
to 1835 the children of Morwenstow were fain to be content
with a tumble-down cottage for their sole schoolroom. Go
there now and see the privileges they enjoy, and know
moreover that for many a long year (quite thirty) until
some kind and noble hearts were sent to his aid, the late
Vicar supported the school well nigh single-handed. So,
he reclaimed the Parish from what had been utter desola-
THE VICARAGE BEGUN yy
tion : at the same time accumulating liabilities, from
which he was never relieved unto the hour of his
death."
The school was built in 1843. It stands just in the
middle of the Parish, and nearly all the cross roads meet
near the spot. " I called it St. Mark's," writes Hawker,
" because he was not an Apostle but Teacher only, and is
called in Old Times the Children's Saint."
It will thus be seen that Hawker was handicapped
financially at the outset of his ministry. For his own sake,
he was not the man to regenerate a neglected cure. He
was too lavish, too generous ; doing everything as he con-
sidered it ought to be done, and never pausing to reflect
whether he could afford it. But while this principle was
fatal to himself, there is no doubt that it was very beneficial
to the parish and the living.
The following letter shows the spirit in which he began
his work : —
To the Rev, H. T. Ellacojnbe, Bitton, near Bristol.
" Monvenstow. April 25 1837.
"My Dear Sir,
..." I begin my house in a few days, and if you
can have access to Hunt's ' Designs for Parsonage Houses,'
you may see a sketch of mine, for it is the first in that
Series of Engravings. The Style Old English, coeval with
that of a part of my Church. I find that by a sweeping
abolition of fences and the old Vicarage Buildings I can
contrive that my Church and Churchyard shall stand just
in the centre of my future lawn. The only objects then
perceptible from my two fronts will be the Church and the
Sea, the suggestions of both which are boundless.
78 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
" I am very happy to hear that the Life Boat is in esse, and
I congratulate you once more on the success of your exer-
tions as the Benefactor of Bude.^ Old Mr. King has
resigned it, and a Mr. Compton is his Successor, whom I
have not seen, for it is but very seldom that I cross the
boundary of my Parish and never without regret. I con-
ceive ' Stricturus glebae ' ^ to be the only happy motto of a
clerical Biography.
" I will send you soon in a letter drawn on one side a
scheme of one Window and one Chimney, by which a
Quarry Man might pronounce on the probable cost. I hope
some Hiram may be found to dwell at Bitton who may
assist me with hewers of Stone if not of wood. My House
will cost much. But I ought not to build a Shoppy Resid-
ence, I think, and as, like Absalom, I have no son, I will like
him build me a pillar in the Bishop's Dale that I may be
had in Remembrance among men. I would fain attract
too a good Man here in every future generation
" Yrs. faithfully,
" R. S. Hawker."
Hawker chose as the site of his house a spot where he
had seen the sheep take shelter in a storm. It has been
suggested that he meant the Vicarage to typify the refuge
of his flock, but his chief motive no doubt was to escape the
violence of the wind, no easy matter in that locality.
An old man who remembers the foundation-stone being
laid, says that a sovereign was placed underneath it.
" But," he added, " I reckon it was tlikt out again."
If the coin was intended to symbolize that the building
stood on a sound financial basis. Hawker would no doubt
' King William also contributed to a Lifeboat at Bude in 1837. On his
death Hawker preached a memorial sermon from the text, " Death is come up
to our windows and our palaces."
- The Vicar's Latin grammar here is somewhat at fault.
V S 5
^■M»MM^jr^,
I Vl'ii"'^*''
^3
^iSl
1^
A SYMBOLIC GABLE 79
have explained its abstraction as the cause of his subse-
quent difficulties.
On 27 Novr. 1837 he writes again to Mr. Ellacombe: —
" My House quoad Walls and Roof is finished. I ought
to have mentioned to you sooner that by mere accident I
discovered just as my Building commenced a Quarry of
most excellent Freestone, gray in colour, soft at first when
taken out of the Quarry so as to cut well but gradually
hardening like iron. I have found four veins : one of large
size I have worked, and, with the assistance of a common
stone-cutter from Lanson, I have put in a good entrance
door labelled with coigns, and external chimnies and a
Gable on one front surmounted with a Cross and worked
in steps in this shape —
J L
It adds to the beauty and gives an ecclesiastical feature
to the Building. We have fitted up a little room in
the Roof, and there we spend Sundays and some-
times other days. Besides this I have finished Combe
Bridge and built an entrance just above my Church-
yard wall, and I am halfway advanced with a Sunday
School and Vestiary room. North of the Chancel, to
which I have devoted a part of the Materials of my
old Vicarage which is taken down. And now with re-
gard to the Cherubim. Do you think that they could be
carved so as to adorn an entrance gateway, one on each
8o LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
pier? If so I think that hereafter when I go to reside at
my new Vicarage they would do for that purpose.
..." We have had no positive wreck since the one which
the Atlantic got up for your inspection. But pieces of
ships have washed on shore, and a part of a man and a
stocking with a human foot in it." . . .
" Yrs. faithfully,
" R. S. Hawker."
In building his Vicarage, Hawker seems to have been to
a great extent his own architect. " The chimnies," he says,
" are models of Towers of Parish Churches where we before
had lived." There are six chimneys altogether : three are
Cornish towers, representing, no doubt, Stratton, Whitstone
and North Tamerton.^ Two of them — the two close
together — have been shorn of their pinnacles by the wind.
Of the other three, two were probably designed from towers
in Oxford. " The kitchen chimney," said Hawker, " per-
plexed me very much, till I bethought me of my mother's
tomb ; and there it is, in its exact shape and dimensions."
The annual value of his rent-charge was £^6^. Accord-
ingly, over the front door he set up a tablet with the
following inscription : —
" A House, a Glebe, a Pound a Day ;
A Pleasant Place to Watch and Pray.
Be true to Church — Be kind to Poor,
O Minister I for evermore."
The lines recall Herrick's ' Thanksgiving to God for his
House.' Hawker was careful to explain in after years that
the expression " a Pound a Day," though accurate at first,
' Mr. Baring-Gould says that one chimney resembles Welcombe ; but the
resemblance is not apparent, and Hawker had nothing to do with Welcombe
until 1850.
^"i I til Hf
^^\
A
AN INSCRIPTION PARODIED 8i
had in course of time become subject to deductions. (See
page 534.) A local wit satirized the inscription as follows : —
" With all these benefits supplied,
A pound a day, and more beside.
How very good this man should prove,
How full of zeal, how full of love !
" But different the times we see,
Since Jesus walked in Gahlee,
And did poor fishermen prepare
His holy Gospel to declare.
" Nor purse, nor scrip He bade them take.
But preach the Gospel for His sake.
And not a single word did say
Of house, or glebe, or pound a day."
The satirist forgot that the Apostles were not expected
to build a house and schools, or to dispense alms, but were
to subsist on the charity of the faithful. Hawker, at any-
rate, fully obeyed the injunction, " Freely ye have received.
Freely give."
- The inside of the Vicarage was in keeping with its
picturesque exterior. One of Hawker's numerous visitors
wrote, in The Standard of i Sept. 1875: — " Within, the
rooms are full of quaint old oak, curious china, and anti-
quities of all sorts, much of it gathered in the parish at a
time when such things were less sought after than at present,
much of it the salvage of wrecks. There are one or two
fine old bedsteads ; and we remember hearing Mr. Hawker
tell with much effect the many devices which he had to
practise before getting the finest of them into his posses-
sion.^ He was unsuccessful until he represented to the
owner the number of persons who must have died in that
bed, and this frightened him into sparing it."
' This was the Manning bed, the story of which is told in ' Footprints.'
F
82 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
Hawker was always a great builder, and building is an
expensive hobby. " To-morrow," he wrote to a friend on
6 Dec. 1857, "I send for my last load of materials, the
close of a long run of outlay extending through nearly
thirty years. Bude, Whitstone, Trebarrow, Morwenstow,
have been the scenes of my architecture." His first wife's
money as well as his own was spent on Morwenstow. "In
my House — " he writes, " my Church — my School — Bridges
over Brooks formerly Fords — in these I trace the sole sur-
viving vestiges of my poor dear unselfish and unmurmuring
Wife's Portion, which when I entered Morwenstow was
unbroken."
Morwenstow Vicarage was built on a larger scale, per-
haps, than was really necessary ; but Hawker resented any
suggestion of improvidence. He was not an easy man to
snub, and he was very ready with a repartee. " Old Mr.
King," he writes, " once said to me, as he looked down on
my house —
" ' Ha ! fools build houses, and wise men inhabit them.'
" ' Just so,' said I, unwilling to be outdone even in candour.
^ Just so, as wise men make proverbs and fools quote them.'
" And then we both grunted."
CHAPTER VIII
The Vicar
I. — Dress — Stationery — Seals — Hospitality — Wit —
Superstition — Opium
The Vicar of Morwenstow was a tall and strongly built
man, with fair hair, blue eyes, and a ruddy complexion.
His voice was rich and powerful. He could be heard all
over his glebe, and would sometimes carry on a conversa-
tion with his neighbours at a farm across the valley. Like
many other poets, he had no ear for music, and literature
appealed to him far more than the other arts.
His dress was unconventional and picturesque. He
absolutely declined to follow the fashions of " the cloth,"
and would not wear anything black. His usual garb, in
earlier years, was a brown cassock. " A blushing brown,"
he said, " was the hue of Our Lady's hair, as typified in
the stem of the maiden-hair fern." ^ In this cassock he
even managed to clamber up and down the cliffs. Later it
was exchanged for a long coat of purple shade. Instead of
a waist-coat, he wore a fisherman's blue jersey, in token
that he was called to be a fisher of men. A small red cross
was woven in the side, to mark the entrance of " the cent-
' "I regret exceedingly," he writes to a friend, "that I have no plant of
Our Lady's Hair Fern to send you. It is of the exact hue of Her Hair (and
Her Blessed Son's), viz. : that of a ripe chestnut with the sun trembling over
it."
83
84 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
urion's cruel spear." These jerseys were knitted for him
by a fisherman's wife at Clovelly. A broad carpenter's-
pencil (chosen in reference to the Carpenter of Nazareth)
usually dangled from his button-hole. Round his neck he
wore a limp white cravat : he could never endure a stiff
collar. He carried a cross-handled walking stick, some-
what resembling a wooden sword, which he called his
" pastoral staff." Hessian boots and a wide-awake beaver
hat completed his out-of-door equipment.
Once, at a clerical meeting, when some of his " brother
rascals," as he called them, commented on the strangeness
of his attire, he replied, " At all events, brethren, you will
allow me to remark that I don't make myself look like a
waiter out-of-place, or an unemployed undertaker, and that
I do scrupulously abide by the injunctions of the 74th
canon of 1603." On another occasion, in Barnstaple, he
found a waggonette full of clergy, most of whom he knew,
starting off to a visitation. " I congratulate you," he said,
" on the funereal appearance of your hearse."
" After Robert had been some years at Morwenstow,"
writes his sister, " he paid a visit to Oxford, and there, as
usual, he wore his cassock. One day he was talking to his
friend. Dr. Jeune, the Master of Pembroke, and two other
heads of colleges.
" ' Why, Hawker,' someone said, ' whatever do you mean
by coming to Oxford in such a dress ? Do you wish to
be taken for a head ? '
" ' Most certainly not,' he replied. ' The last thing I
should wish to be taken for, as heads go ! ' "
In 1850, after a visit to his brother at Boscastle, he
writes : " Tell us all that transpires about ' The Appear-
ance ' in Cap and Cassock, and do make people understand
that nothing could be more at variance with a Roman Garb
than my whole apparel. All my vestures were brought
Robert Stephen Hawker,
at his Vicarajre door.
A GREEK HAT 85
directly from St. Petersburgh by friends, and therefore from
the Greek or Eastern Church, a Body more adverse to
Rome than Rome to England."
In one of his note-books is an entry, " Compare Priests
in Greek Church ; any colour BUT black. Cassock lined
with fur."
His admiration for the Eastern Church at this time
appeared even in his headgear. A friend applied on his
behalf to a Greek priest in London for the loan of his hat
as a model. The good old priest had only one, but he lent
it, and it was copied at Christy's. It was a kind of fez.
When the Vicar of Hartland, the Rev. T. H. Chope, lost
his wife, Hawker took the service at her funeral. * " He
arrived at Hartland," writes Mr. Chope, " wearing a hat
without a brim. There had been an accident on his way,
and on my observing that his hat had received damage
then, he indignantly replied, ' Don't you know that this is
the costume worn by a Greek priest ? ' "
A few years later the Greek phase would seem to have
passed away, for a writer in the Church Revietv says : —
"When, at Morwenstow in the summer of 1856, I expressed
my dislike on orthodox grounds to the war then waged
against Russia, my host designated the Greek Church as ' a
miserable heresy,' and identified it with some Eastern sect
or dogma, whose name I was unacquainted with and have
forgotten." This is borne out by the poem ' Baal-Zephon,'
written in 1854.
In 1858 he writes to a friend : —
" You dislike my Garb. Well, I grant a Cassock is not
a becoming dress, but the cost is less than £2 a )-ear in lieu
of Broadcloth and Coats, and for many years I have paid
my Schoolmaster's salary with the difference between the
usual price of a Clergyman's coat and my stiff Cassock.
The Bills I used to pay when I was a younger fool ! And
86 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
after all when I was full dressed in a Suit of Black Cloth I
was the complete copy of my own Tailor in his gala suit."
In 1 864 he asks a friend in London to buy a hat, " Red
if to be had, or a Reddish Brown — but not on any account
Black or Black like — as thick and soft as you can." Again :
" Do you know anything of velvet ? I mean to have when
I can get it a dark purple velvet frock coat. But I don't
know the price or quantity. Will you inquire ? " To
another friend he writes, " Valentine has ordered a hat from
Christy's, and from some blunder they have made also a
duplicate of the old red fez which I sent him for a pattern
of the size of my head. Hat 17/- in the bill, and a new red
fez 17/-, the latter as superfluous to me as a mitre."
He loved bright colours. The only black things he wore,
apparently, were his socks. " The wool," he writes, " grows
on my Black Ewe. It is washed and sent to Wellcombe,
where two or three Old Women still turn the Wheel and
spin. The yarn is spun large and moderately loose. Then
the Children at the School knit from a pattern sock, and my
one Ewe will supply me with 2 1 pair of Socks every year
if I needed so many."
He was always particular as to the exact shade of his
clothes. In 1871 he writes to a friend who had bought a
pair of trousers for him, " Many thanks for your efforts in
the line of lower habiliments. They fit admirably, but the
Color is still disappointing. We think it Navy blue, and yet
in certain phases of light there is a brownish tinge. It does
seem hard that our Empire cannot produce so simple a
shade as Red Brown. Of old I had no difficulty, yet now
wheresoever I seek the result is every other hue but that.
The subfuscus of the Canons is abolished as they themselves
are."
As the Vicar grew older, his hair changed to silvery
white, and he wore it long at the back. One day a work-
BEARDS, TEA, AND TOBACCO ?>7
man from Bude went up to Morwenstow to do a job at the
Vicarage, and took his little boy with him. The Vicar, in
his cassock, was standing in the garden. He had no hat
on, and with his clean-shaven face looked not unlike a
stately and venerable old lady. " There's Mr. Hawker,"
said the man. " Why, vather," answered the child, " her's
surely a wumman ! "
The Vicar was clean-shaven on principle. " Nothing,'*
he writes, " can mark a man's character like that one thing
a Beard. By one of the Councils which are named in our
Articles, and which all the Clergy at least have vowed to
obey. Beards are forbidden to be worn by the Clergy at all.
So that every Clergyman who wears one is a Rebel against
the Authorities of his Church — lowers himself to the level
of a lay person and degrades his sacred office. This is no
doubt strange, but it is true, and if all the world concur to
justify a Sin that Sin still remains a Guilty thing. No
number of people who commit a wrong thing can make
wrong right."
Hawker's eccentricity of dress extended also to other
personal matters. It seemed as though he were constitu-
tionally incapable of doing things like other men. Possibly,
to some extent, he aimed at peculiarity. Though simple
and abstemious in his habits, he was fastidious in certain
minor luxuries such as tea, tobacco and stationery. For
such articles he always wrote direct to the heads of the
most famous firms. For tea he paid 5s. 4d. per lb. at Twining's.
He did not take to smoking until late in life, but when he
did begin he smoked heavily. His tobacco was pure
Latakia, and his pipes short, large-bowled clays. He
would take a basketful, ready-filled, to his cliff hut. His
note-paper, thick and parchment-like, and ruled with faint
red lines, was specially made for him by Messrs. De La Rue,
who undertook not to supply the same to anybody else.
LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
In 1862 he writes to Mr. J. G. Godwin : —
" Do you happen among your numerous avenues of
acquaintance to know any Worldwide Stationer ? I always
write with Swanquills and I want to ascertain access to a
very superior kind of dealer in such things. It occurred to
me that the London Scene of display (The Exhibition)
might bring together competitors in quills as well as other
articles of Stationery. Do you know about this likelihood,
or do you know any permanent House, English or Foreign,
likely to hold such Old World usages as the Sale of Quills ?
" You must have perceived that in certain things I am
very costly. But then, as I tell inquirers, my Ebers Book-
box is my bitter beer. So my Stationery is my Wine, and
as I have not tasted Fermented Fluids for a great number
of years I have some right to indulge in other luxuries.
" For many years I had from the House of De La Rue
Amber-wove red-ruled Paper — and it was a real delight to
write on it. Suddenly about a year ago a New corresponding
Clerk came into De La Rue's Establishment. His name
was Mumford. Well, he wrote me in a very high and mighty
way that they had no Wove Paper left, but I might have
Amher-/aid — and after an effort or two I gave way — and
for a whole year I have had to write as I now write in tor-
ture— blotchy thick-lined reckless Runes. At last a Month
ago I addressed a Letter ' to any one of the old De La Rue
Partners now alive,' and therein I detailed my great Paper
grief I rejoice to say I had an immediate and kind reply
from a De La Rue, with an assurance that my old Wove
Paper should be made for me again— whereas the Clerk
who snubbed me said any order for less than 200 Reams
could not be attended to.
" Now, I have given you this long history that you may
understand the trouble I take to obtain comfortable things,
and to illustrate my intended pursuit of Swan quills. All
PENS, INK, AND PAPER 89
I want is an address to which to write, if you can supply it.
Afterwards a great question of black ink will come into
discussion."
He was very particular about ink. " It is a singular
hardship," he writes in 1 866, " that with all the modern
science in all England there cannot be found a bottle of
Black Ink of the old kind — that is, Ink that is fluid and
will write black at the time of writing. Every sort I try is
of this kind I now use, pale as I write and only turning
black afterwards ; a sort I abhor. When I used to write the
pen marked with a black and glossy hue and was a pleasure
to see. Now I have lost all pleasure in my own Autograph,
and worse than that after four or five years my Register
Books begin to fade. Whereas, in the Middle Ages the Ink
wherewith the fine old MSS. were written, clear-flowing
black and glossy, is even now indelible. And this is the
19th Century!"
In 1 864 he writes to Mr. Godwin : —
" Your Envelope — I shall ruin you in stamps — arrived to-
night with your kind effort in Black lead. The price was a
prophecy of their failure. A good BBBB Cumberland
Pencil ought to cost as much as your whole investment.
But now thanks to your arrangement of my Drawer I found
my correspondence with Brookman & Langdon, Great
Ormond Yard, and to them I have written by this Post to
order some very large, very soft, and very black 4 B shading
Pencils my former calibre and I am much obliged to you
for your kind intentions. Thank you for the name of the
Ink, but how I am to obtain it thro' Plymouth I know not.
No one was ever so remote from friendly succour since
Selkirk's Shipwreck as I am, but this I need not mention
to an eye-witness. I began to-day to turn out drawers, &c.,
for the fire, and such a mass of letters that man}^ men
would be proud to keep— from literary writers and other
90 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
men of mark — But to me the receipt of my Butcher's Bill
is a far more satisfactory autograph than that of C, Dickens
or Walter White. I have taken in the stead of Tommy
Jane's youngest Brother Richard, whom I have long marked
at School as a diligent and dutiful boy. So now, out of my
Four Servants Three are of one Family. The mice are
actually at play on my Table while I write."
The seals with which he fastened his letters were very
characteristic. One was the pentacle of Solomon. In a
letter to Mr. Richard Twining, dated 1850, he says : —
" The five-pointed Figure which referred to the Hand of
God and signified Power is now in the possession of an
Engraver in Brass (Hardman of Birmingham), for a seal
Ring for the Forefinger. In the centre are to be cut the
Four Hebrew Letters which form the awful Name
The rightful Pronunciation is lost. The Rabbins say if it
were to be accurately sounded, even by chance, Earthquakes
would ensue, the Foundations of the Hills would be up-
rooted, and the ancient Genii imprisoned there would come
forth and appear to many. Yee-hah-ee-hah, a word
entirely breathed, without usage of the tongue or teeth,
appears to approach it. It should come forth from the
throat and mouth all breath, sighed rather than syllabled.
When finished, I hope to send Miss Twining an impression
in Wax. It ought to be engraven on a sapphire stone,
which ought to lift like a lid, and coiled underneath should
lie the small viper or worm which Sulimaun Ben Davod
used in Miracles."
Another favourite seal was the mystic fish, which he
describes as follows : —
" The Fish Seal.
" i. The oval outline of the Seal denotes the upper Rim or
border of an antique Font of Stone.
THE FISH SEAL 91
" ij. The Serpent, orbed, that is, circled, Tail in mouth, is
the Oriental Emblem of Eternity.
" iij. The Fish is the Mullet of the Sea of Galilee — that
which filled the Apostolic Nets — came obedient with coin,^
was eaten by Our Lord after he arose from the dead. A
Fish is the oldest and most universal Symbol of a baptized
Christian all over the ancient World.
" iv. Over the Fish are Two Letters, I X, between two
Greek Crosses ; and underneath are Three other letters, 6Y2.
These letters put together make the Greek Word IX6Y2.
" v. Now the name and Title of Our Lord in Greek are
IH20Y2
Jesus
XPI2T02
Christ
0EOY
of God
YI02
Son
2f2THP
Saviour
" The initials of these words make the above noun
IX0Y2, the Greek for a Fish."
To a lady who had sceptically demanded authority for
this explanation he wrote : —
" You ask me how I know the Mullet of the Lake of
Galilee to have been the fish which filled the Apostolic net.
By a very simple and unmistakeable proof Gennesaret
swarms with these very mullet still. It is the only pre-
valent Fish of that Water or Sea, and as there is no con-
nection between the salt sea and the lake there can have
been no new kind of fish brought thither from our Lord's
time till now. Very many travellers relate the capture of
the mullet in that Lake by Fishermen who dwell near, and
therefore beyond all question these Fish have increased
and multiplied and there abode from oldest time till now."
' Elsewhere he says, "The fish came by command to Simon's hook, with
the double shekel in its mouth for the Churchrate of him and his Lord."
92 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
To male sceptics he was less polite. A clergyman, whom
he had shown over the church writes : — " I made an un-
fortunate though perhaps natural enquiry as to the source
of his interesting explanations. ' Are these your ideas, Mr.
Hawker,' I ventured to ask, ' or have you any authority for
them ? ' To which he replied, hotly enough, ' I should be a
fool and a knave to tell you these things out of my own
head ? ' After that I received everything he told me with a
becoming appearance of receptivity."
One day a tourist asked him —
" Mr. Hawker, what are your views and opinions ? " The
Vicar took him to a window in the passage facing the sea,
and said —
" There is Hennacliff, the highest cliff on this coast, on
the right ; the church on the left ; the Atlantic Ocean in
the middle. These are my views. My opinions I keep to
myself"
But though he disliked being made an object of idle
curiosity, he always had a hearty welcome for visitors,
especially if they brought him news of old friends. His
hospitality was unbounded ; far more lavish, in fact, than
his means could afford. As Praed says of his ' Vicar ' —
" Whate'er the stranger's caste or creed,
Pundit or Papist, saint or sinner,
He found a stable for his steed,
And welcome for himself, and dinner."
In the summer of 1854, two young men on a walking
tour along the Cornish Coast, arrived at Morwenstow, and
asked the way to the church. They were told that they
would find the Parson there. It was in the morning of a
week day. They found the church door locked, but hearing
a voice within they knocked and waited. Presently the
Vicar appeared, in his surplice, and let them in. " When
WELCOME VISITORS 93
the service is over," he said, " I will show you over the
church." The service consisted of his ranging about the
chancel, prayer-book in hand, and reading out bits of the
Psalms and anything that came into his head. The con-
gregation consisted of Mrs. Hawker and themselves. When
the ceremony was at an end the Vicar took them round,
explaining the symbolism of the architecture and carving.
When they had seen everything, he invited them to the
Vicarage for refreshment, and presently he asked their
names. When he heard that they were called Milman, he
was interested at once.
" Any relation to Dean Milman ? " he enquired.
" Yes, his sons."
On hearing this his delight was unbounded.
" Why ! " he said, " your Father was Professor of Poetry
at Oxford when I won my Newdigate. He was one of the
judges who gave me the prize. " To think I should see his
sons here ! "
He jumped up, ran to the door, and shouted for his wife.
Then he turned out all his treasures, books and pictures and
curios, and took them all round his house and garden.
" We stayed a long time cracking stories together," says
Mr. Arthur Milman, " and when we went away he gave me
a copy of his poems and my brother a copy of Mrs.
Hawker's ' Manger of the Holy Night.'
One instance of his profuse hospitality may be given. The
Rev. Canon Bone, at one time Vicar of Stratton, writes : —
" I took rather a large party of friends to Morwenstow,
and I called on him hoping that he might be able to show
us the church ; but as he was not at home we went over it
by ourselves. On our way to the cliff, we met him. On
our return, I called on him again with one or two of my
party, the rest having gone up to the little inn to get ready
our picnic tea, the materials of which we had brought with
94 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
us, I found he was expecting us all to tea, and I excused
myself with difficulty from accepting his invitation. On
going out I saw through the dining-room doorway a view
of the long table laid out for our entertainment, and felt
that I had made a mistake in not availing myself of the
hospitality which he delighted to exercise."
As we have already seen. Hawker possessed a ready wit,
and was never at a loss for a repartee. He had also a happy
facility for an impromptu epigram. The best of these has
been often printed, but never quite correctly.
The occasion is described by his sister in a book of
anecdotes. There was an election going on and great
excitement prevailed in Stratton, speeches being made from
the windows to a crowded street. A Liberal candidate was
shouting, with great energy, " I will never be priest-ridden ! "
Robert, who was in the crowd, hastily wrote on a piece of
paper and handed it up to the speaker, with whom he was
acquainted. The paper bore the lines which stand in his
MS. book as follows : —
" Thou ridden ! no ! that shall not be,
By prophet or by priest I
Balaam is dead, and none but he
Could choose thee for his beast."
Another epigram, and the occasion of it, is related in one
of his letters : —
" Once we saw at Maerlake a lady writing with her parasol
on the sand. When she was gone we went to the spot
and read : —
" ' On this soft sand thy name I trace,
Which ocean's tide will soon efface ;
But vain the power of ocean's art
To wash thine image from my heart.'
THE COCK CREW! 95
She^was watching, as we saw ; so we wrote and went away.
She came up to see, and read : —
" ' On these soft sands we just have read
The effusion of thy softer head :
Old Ocean's power indeed is vain
To wash the nonsense from thy brain.'
So if she expected flattery she was disappointed that day,"
" Of the same character," writes Mr. Maskell, " were some
of his off-hand remarks. At a Visitation of the late Bishop
of Exeter, at Launceston, Hawker was painfully submitting
himself to the hearing of the doctrine laid down by the
preacher of the day, an Evangelical of the lowest type.
Suddenly a cock crew loudly outside the door. He nudged
his neighbour, the Rector of Marhamchurch, and said,
" Listen to him ! he is denying his Lord."
Once, at an inquest at which Hawker was giving evidence,
the Coroner said —
" It is your opinion, Mr. Hawker, that this man died a
natural death ? "
" Certainly ; " was the reply, " there was not a doctor
near him."
He was fond of moralising on the transience of human
greatness, and the contempt for earthly fame which the great
ones of this world must feel five minutes after they are
dead. When the Duke of Wellington was lying in state,
and England was ringing with panegyrics, he thus conceived
the scene that was taking place in the world of souls.
"The Carcass-Shew.
"1852.
" It was in the Hall of the Third Shadow, when the Messengers
glided in, with Tidings of the Proud Corpse-Pageant of England ;
and while the Imagery of that Funeral March flashed ever and
96 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
anon along the ethereal Woof of the Communing of Saints ; — that
thus Duke Arthur said. — Now He that spake, altho in that hour
he was nothing but Soul, yet it was Himself, the very same in
aspect and gesture, in Shape and Form and Voice, the living,
breathing, deathless Man of War, who brake loose from the Body
at Walmer by the Sea, and who had never paused in his Conscious
Journey from the Couch of Severance to that multitudinous Deep.
He stood by Picton as the Scene sounded in, and he said in his
own quaint old earthly way, ' Bad, Picton, Bad : very Bad :
wrong, utterly wrong. They forget what sinful fellows we all were,
every one of us. Well, well ! They cannot say I did it. This
Vaunt was none of Mine.'"
It will be remembered that Disraeli made a speech in
praise of the dead hero, which, as it afterwards transpired,
was a near paraphrase of the eulogy pronounced by a French
orator, M. Thiers, on Napoleon.
The epigram which Hawker wrote on this occasion is
contained in the following letter : —
" Morwenstow. Deer, xviij., 1852.
" Dear Sir Thomas Acland,
" Although I know your time is better spent than
in correspondence with Country Parsons, who between our-
selves are generally terrible bores, still I know a spell or
charm to make you grasp your pen. I want your Help for
a kind purpose and a good, and a line in your autograph is
all I want. I ask you simply for an introduction to Mr.
Marriott your Ward in order that I may apply to him in
favour of a Candidate for the Vacant Schoolmastership of
Wike St. Mary. The Candidate is a very worthy young
Man, my own Schoolmaster, but I cannot afford to give
him a moiety of the salary at Wike St. Mary and therefore
I must aid him to move to promotion and get another
here. And now I confide in your assent to my request
EPIGRAMS 97
and I will copy from my MS. a verse of unpublished
Poetry —
" An Excuse :
" Mr. Chancellor of the Exchequer's Plagiarism.
" 'Tis wrong to steal your neighbour's thought :
Both law and taste forbid it.
But he who this example taught
Was Dizzy when he did it.
" Yrs, Dear Sir Thomas,
" faithfully,
" R. S. Hawker."
In 1864, when Garibaldi was in England, Hawker wrote
these lines : —
" To THE NiZZARD.
" Gird on thy gory Vest ! that ruddy Stain
Wear thou in memory of thy Father Cain :
Not all the Waters of the Italian Flood
Can wash from that fell garment Abel's blood !
Micaiah, the Son of Imlah."
The two epigrams that follow were written in 1874, the
year before he died. The first relates to Gladstone and
Disraeli ; the second to the controversy which arose over
the doubtful baptism of Archbishop Tait.
" On the Passing of the Public Worship
Regulation Act.
" An English Boy was born : a Jew : so then
On the eighth day they circumcised him Ben !
Another child had birth : baptized : but still
In public phrase surnamed The People's Will !
G
98 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
Both lived impenitent, and so they died,
And between both the Church was crucified !
Which bore the Brand — I pray thee, tell me true —
The perjured Christian or the recreant Jew?"
" Inconsistency.
" That Tait was born, men say they rue.
Alas ! how treacherous and untrue !
They call his first Birth vile and vain,
Yet wish he might be born again."
Hawker was an excellent raconteur, and his conversation
was brimful of humour and anecdote. The following letter,
written in 1859, shows what he could make of a trivial
incident, and may serve, perhaps, as a sample of his talk in
a lighter vein. " I have often told you," he writes, " of the
doom on Eastaway (a house in the parish). Nothing has
ever prospered there since Catherine M. went to live in a
warmer climate. Not a cow gives milk long — not a calf
lives — not a horse holds up its head. On Monday Week I
was there. She, Mrs. R., showed me a carriage she had just
had home — four wheels. Head and curtains built about 1759,
painted iS^g, cost ;!{J^20, one horse — no herrings inside,
for I looked for them — in this she was going to put their
big Flatcatcher, four bones wavy and one horizontal, Har-
ness ;^8, Chas. Kivel (twins) Butler and Coachman. Off
they went on Tuesday to pay a visit to Mrs. K., at Stratton.
Entry into the Town very magnificent, something like the
Lion Queen riding the Elephant ; Niece Mary P. with her.
In Stratton thought struck her to go shopping as they do in
Town. Carriage at shop door. They in the shop. Mrs.
R.'s Carriage waits. All at once, squash ! Some Stratton
Tradesman, mad to see a customer next door, flings some-
thing out in the street. Away flies the Big bones, darts into
HOAXING 99
a shop window — over goes the Carriage — Kivel suddenly
dethroned — broken Sceptre. He himself bruised into spotted
boy. Carriage smashed into small bits — every spring
broken. Shafts only cling to the horse, which rushes off
down the Street to Bude, Catherine enjoying her invisible
ride on his crupper."
In telling a story the Vicar would preserve such a gravity
of countenance, however amazing his assertions, that his
hearers never quite knew whether or not he was serious.
He said once to a friend who called, " Did you meet a
waggonette full of people ? I stuffed them up with all kinds
of nonsense, and they believed every word ! "
This habit of hoaxing became so ingrained in his nature
that perhaps, as he grew older, he was hardly able himself
to distinguish between jest and earnest, fact and fancy,
belief and simulated belief
It may well be imagined that such an inventive faculty,
and power of presenting the marvellous as the actual, made
him an immense favourite with children. They recognised
in him one who responded to the watchword of the nursery,
" let's pretend." He, on his part, loved to take them with
him in his walks, and tell them story after story. " One
pervading principle of Holy Writ," he writes in his thought-
diary, " is fondness for little children's weal."
His parishioners were a simple and primitive folk, not
yet attacked by the reinforcements of the School Board.
Types of character now passing away are drawn in * Foot-
prints ' with inimitable humour.
While Tristram Pentire stands for the Cornish wrecker
and smuggler. Old Trevarten and Uncle Tony Cleverdon
embody the native belief in such things as witchcraft, omens,
the evil-eye, ill-wishing, ghosts, fairies, pixies and mermaids.
In such beliefs the Vicar himself shared to no small extent.
Indeed, it would be hardly possible to spend a life-time in
lOO LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
that wild and lonely place, and remain impervious to super-
stition. Hawker was as one
" Sole sitting by the shores of old romance."
In 1856 he describes one of his own supernatural ex-
periences : —
" It was a bright, fierce, stern dog-day. I was returning
from Wellcombe on my old gray mare. I had to cross a
deep and narrow Gorge between hills, like Stowe valley
without its cottages or woods, and to pass, down near the
sea, a silent mill. On Sundays it is always shut up, and
the people go elsewhere to sleep. Often as I have passed
the all-but-ruined hut, I have thought of the psalm wherein
mention is made of the ' thing which walketh in darkness and
the demon of the noon.' That day the sky was silent with
heat, and the whole scene was like a place where all was so
lonely that hardly God was there ; when all at once a swift,
brown, rough shape started up among the gorse bushes, and
rushed or glided towards the stream. I felt myself flush
and then grow pale ; but, remembering St. Thomas's word
that every spirit must crouch to the Sign, I made it in the
air, and rode as fast as I could urge the mare towards it.
I saw its head disappear down the bank, and, although I
looked along the river and followed its course, I caught
sight of it no more. It was a kind of nameless and inde-
finable sensation, rather than the sight, that assured me it
was preternatural : at least, so I thought, and think."
In the same year he writes to Mr. Maskell : —
" You tax me with being pixy-taught ; ' I wish I war ; '
as once I said to an ancient woman, ' They tell me you are
a witch ! ' 'I wish I war,' was the answer ; ' Some on 'em
should suffer.' Talking of Pixies, they are the souls of un-
baptized children, and the greener ring you see upon the
A SUPERNATURAL PHENOMENON loi
grass is their earthly border. Certain gawky-souled guests
of mine the other day agreed to beHeve this, if a ring could
be found where neither ploughshare nor spade had ever
elicited some long name from the soil. That same week a
plain visible tinted ring was footed out in my churchyard,
where never yet was corpse laid."
A hint of rational explanation in this case is afforded by
a later letter : —
" Some years agone," he writes, " when the manure Guano
was first brought in, some was sent to me to try. A lad,
who then lived with me, without my knowledge, sowed some
of it on a grass field near the Church, in patterns and
letters, as young people sow parsley seed in a garden bed.
Wherever this manure is shed the grass assumes a deeper
green and a quicker, taller growth. Accordingly my boy's
trick came up in visible shape ; all over the ground there
were rings like Pixy rings, strokes along and across, and in
one place in letters tall as a man the word GUANO. Well,
people saw and laughed at the boy's trick, and I called it to
him silly but harmless. Not so, however, a Person, a
Female — a visitor from Plymouth to Bude. On her return
to her own town she circulated a version of the matter, which
soon after found its way into the paper, that Mr. H., in order
to impose on the people a notion of his supernatural powers,
and to foster their superstition, had used this guano himself,
and had produced these images on the grass to convey idea
of unearthly power. It was beneath notice ; but I thought
it right to transmit through a friend to the authoress of the
fabrication an admonition to her to remember that false
witness was denounced by Her Maker as a crime in the
Decalogue with adultery, and that the New Testament closed
in the Revelation, Ch. 21, verse 27, with a warning of awful
and similar kind."
He believed that the air is full of invisible beings.
I02 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
He writes in his thought-diary under the heading of
" Ghosts " :—
" We know that the Demons are loose. We are told that
the messengers of Satan are volatile, and fill the air. We
read that Angels glide to and fro. Why may not the Souls
of our beloved traverse the air on the errands of their love ? "
But there was another element in Hawker's spiritualism
He took opium, at first as a medicine, afterwards from habit,
and there can be little doubt that this explained a great
deal in his character and mental attitude. Under its
influence, perhaps, much of his finest work in poetry was
written ; but it had its inevitable reaction, in irritability, and
moods of profound depression. He broke himself of the
habit after his second marriage, but renewed it some years
before his death.
The following incident was related in a West-country
paper by an organist and music-master, who, on his pro-
fessional journeys, often stayed at Morwenstow Vicarage.
" It was on the occasion of my first visit. I had retired
to rest, then just after one o'clock in the morning. The Rev,
gentleman entered my bedroom, and, solemnly addressing
me, said, now was the hour to confess my sins, which (as
he said) were many. If I would repeat the following words
three times, and have faith, it would prove an infallible
remedy to exorcise all evil spirits : —
" ' Clean birds by sevens.
Unclean by twos.
The Dove in the Heavens
Is the one I will choose.'"
II
Love of Birds and Animals — Farming — Charity
In his love of birds and beasts Hawker was like St.
Francis of Assisi. The wild birds would flutter round him,
"UBI AVES IBI ANGELI" 103
as he stood calling them all by name, " Jacky, Tommy,
Robin," and feeding them with crumbs from his hand. To
a friend who had sent him an illustrated anecdote about a
bird, he wrote : —
*' I read to Mrs. Hawker your most interesting cutting
and copy of the Tamed Martlet. Any thing of that kind is
full of value to me. Every year of my life I cause the Hay-
loft doors to be set open in Swallow Time, and also of
other outhouses, and every year do they, the swallows and
the martins, build in the selfsame places inside and out.
They began to build nests under our eaves as soon as the
house was built — " the lucky swallow builds " — and the
whole of our premises and fields are full of birds semi-tame :
Rooks in the Churchyard trees. Daws in every Chimney,
save one (the kitchen), and in every hedge some. No gun is
ever fired near. Did I tell you of a saying of, I think, St
Basil — Ubi aves ibi angeli — wheresoever there are birds
there are angels ? "
In his thought-diary there are numberless entries such as
the following : —
" Birds.
"They were first seen in the soft Sunlight of the fifth day,
and as they floated through the silent air with their silver
plumage and feathers like Gold, the Angels said one to another,
' Behold what beautiful images of the Mind of God have come
forth with wings.'
" Birds.
" There is piety in the domestic Wren and Religion in her
Nest.
"Birds.
" He heareth the grieving supplication wherewith they entreat
for food, that low beseeching cry.
I04 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
" You would be grieved to see," he writes during a hard
winter, " how bitterly the cold has dealt with our Birds.
Many, chiefly starlings, are lying dead around our house : as
the snow melts they appear. All my Rooks — Daws —
Blackbirds — Robins — and Titmice of two kinds, have come
to my windows all day long and been fed ; so they live and
do well. But the wilder birds are dead in multitudes."
" Beans and Peas," he writes elsewhere, " are interdicted
by the Jackdaws. We have sown twice, and twice they
have devoured them all. And a Scarecrow put up by my
old Man, was so made up in my hat and broken Cassock
that they took it for me, and came around it looking up to
be fed."
He found a real companionship in the presence of birds.
" We are full of Society just now," he writes in Spring time.
" — 1 6 nests in the Churchyard trees. Rooks all sitting.
Every chimney except one stopped up with Jack Daws'
Nests — can't light a fire till they hatch and are fledged."
The Rooks he had himself induced to settle in the Church-
yard. " What years," he writes in his poem on the Church,
" What years the birds of God have found
Along these walls their sacred nest."
All birds and flowers and animals had to his mind some
symbolic attribute. " A Doe Rabbit," he writes, " has
made her Nest and reared her young in a Maltese Cross
flower Bed in the garden where I exchanged fa ma for/umus.
It was underneath a Columbine, a flower emblematic of the
Holy Ghost and named from the Dove."
Here are two typical entries in his thought-diary : —
" Angels.
"When Balaam's Ass spake, He saw the 'angel of Asses' in
his path, saith Origen. Now, it is a fine thought, that he Who
IMMORTALITY OF ANIMALS 105
careth for cattle hath appointed a spiritual guardian for them each
in its rank. Cf. angel of Roses and the angel of the oak.
The transition to a dryad is very easy then."
" Pity.
" I wonder the sight of their innocent flocks, the faces of their
sheep and lambs, did not put milder thoughts into their minds.
{i.e., Joseph's brethren.) I cannot tell how they could sell their
Brother and then look a lamb in the face."
He writes to a lady who had asked his opinion as to the
immortality of animals : —
" They were created before Adam. Prior to Man they
shared and share his lot. They had a right in Paradise.
They were gathered with the eight souls into the Ark. They
had a principal part in God's Revelations. By Animals
God made known the Way of Man's Salvation. Said the
Law Divine, Sin must Suffer — Death for Sin. He caused
Animals to be nurtured for Sacrifice to reveal this great
Thing. A Lamb proclaimed the Gospel of the future
Messiah — a Lamb slain. When Jesus was born, it was in
the Presence of Animals. The Ox knew his Owner in the
Cave at Bethlehem, and the Ass his Master's crib. In the
Wilderness the Son of Man was among the Beasts of the
Wild. An Ass knew her Rider when he rode into Jerusalem
royally. Besides all this there have been seen by the
Prophets in their visions horses in Heaven, from the scenery
of Zachariah to the pale steed of Azrael, Angel of Death, re-
corded by St. John. Who can read all this and doubt but
that animals will roam and feed in the New Earth, wherein
Righteousness will dwell."
Again, with reference to the deaths of his pets, he writes : —
" Then Carrow [a pony], with an eye like a human being,
who used to come into the house gliding through the door
io6 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
like a shadow, and bounding thro' the window — she died
of utter old age. Next Marian, suddenly — a dog, Charlie —
and now, one by one of the cats. Wonderful are these
speechless Creatures, and without entering into question as
to what it is that supplies the place of a soul in one of these,
only ask the people who despise or slight animals words
like these : ' Who was it that contrived all their customs —
invented their various ways ? Who put into their minds
every cunning and careful usage of theirs about their food
— their abode — the nurture of their young ? ' Every one
of these devices existed first as a plan and purpose in the
mind of their Maker, and was breathed by Him into their
nature and embodied in their thoughts. Mark also how
they know and dread death. Many, such as the elephant
and the lion, also the deer, when they grow old and weak,
will crawl away into some known and usual cave or den
where it is the custom of their race to die. All lesser
animals, when old age and their final disease draws nigh,
will seek some secret chosen place to die in. There is a
mystery about the companionship of animals which it needs
King Solomon to solve. There is a legend that a lion and
a bear were allowed to lick Lord Jesu's hand. Among the
Apostles, St. John was followed by a tame pet bird, a
partridge of Syria ; and many of the Ancient Mar-
tyrs and Saints of the early ages had some furred
or feathered favourite as the sole companion of the
cavern or the cell. All this is, I fear, prosy and dull to
you, but not so, I hope, my inference and doctrine from it
all, and that is that a fondness for Society of animals and
pleasure in watching their familiar affections is a native and
natural impulse with good and kind and holy men, and
therefore cannot be wrong, nay, must be right in us, since,
as it is written, ' One touch of nature makes the whole
world kin.' Yes I am not ashamed to confess that not
THE ETHICS OF SLAUGHTER 107
only Mrs. H.'s, but my own eyes, have filled to overflowing
at the saddest event of a solitary house, the death of a
fondling creature — a pet."
In one of his old agricultural books is a note as follows : —
"t Sheep. In 1835-6-8, I had a black wedder which
would guard the flock like a dog, and if one of them turned
over on his back would run to the nearest man to signify
something amiss. His fleece in '35 was 1 1 lbs, in '36
12 lbs, in '37 II lbs, in '38 loi lbs. He is now alive, kept
by me from the knife for good behaviour.
"July XX. 1838."
The sign of the cross against the word ' Sheep ' was a
common usage of Hawker's to signify excellence or Divine
favour. He also used it as an abbreviation for ' Christ.'
Writing to a friend in 1857, he says, " I never sell to the
Butcher : luckily, from lack of grass, I cannot feed to fatness^
so they go off at a low price to be fattened by others."
Again, in 1861 : " One of my Ewes has been attacked
with the Hydatids, Water on the Brain, for which in this
unskilful country there is no cure. . . . Mine must die^
poor thing. I never take away life. Life is precious to
all God's creatures under any conditions, and except for
food man never received from the Maker of all leave to
kill. But I must not complain : the health of all my
animals is wonderful, and the age to which they attain is
quite a proverb around us."
His horses when past work were always allowed to end
their days in peace. He named them after his favourite
saints and heroes.
" I have as perfect a horse colt," he writes, " as I ever
saw — from Morwenna after Jack in the Green. I have
called him Nectan, after Morwenna's Brother, who founded
Hartland and Wellcombe. The Foal is a light bay, or
io8 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
chestnut, with not only a magnificent Shoulder, but what
famous horses sometimes have, a crested Ridge Bone or
artificial Shoulder, carrying on the natural one down the
back — and barely leaving Saddleroom. His other points,
too, are very fine. Worth ;^io now as he stands. Tame —
eats from my hand, and calls me ' Daddie ' already."
He had a wonderful power over animals. When driving
he kept the reins loose, and talked all the time to his
horses, who seemed to understand him and did whatever
he told them.
He always kept a number of dogs and cats, which occas-
ionally accompanied him to church. " In Mr. Hawker's
judgment," says a writer in the Standard^ " all the creatures
had a certain right of admission to God's house. He some-
times appeared at his lectern attended by four or five cats,
unusual but graceful acolytes, who, as he assured us, allow-
ing for an occasional display of youthful vivacity, rarely
conducted themselves otherwise than with great propriety."
At one time he had nine cats. " In the evening," writes
a friend, " he led them to the cat-house. They had all
names. Each waited till he pronounced its name, and then
jumped up to the shelf on which they reposed. His dog,
Dustyfoot, also went to church, and, like the dog in ' Wood-
stock,' generally behaved very well there. But once, when
Mr. Hawker went into the pulpit, it followed him up the
steps, and remained by his side to the end of the discourse."
A clergyman, to whom he showed the church, writes : — " I
wanted to shut out my dog, but he insisted on his coming
in, as much more fit than many Christians." One of his
cats he called his most righteous cat, because whenever he
missed it he generally found it waiting at the church door.
A former servant at the vicarage says : " There's no mistake
about they cats. I know, cos I had to tend 'em ; and some-
times I wished 'em further, I can tell 'e."
"THE CORNERS OF THY FIELDS" 109
Hawker was a keen farmer. When he first went to
Morwenstow, the glebe had no buildings, and the land was
rented by neighbours. He built stables, barns, outhouses
and hedgebanks, and left at his death a well-arranged glebe-
farm. It was one of the main interests of his life.
Sir Thomas Acland often sent him presents of live stock
from his own farm at Holnicote. Hawker mentions one
such occasion in a letter : " Just arrived the most splendid
Cartload of Exmoors ever seen by man. Sir T. A.'s second
best Ram, Two Ewes of a Pen shewn at the Bristol Show,
and Two Ewe Lambs — a good £10 worth. A present
worth having."
In 1856 he writes: " It is my present purpose not to
take a Man, but to keep a smock frock and old hat, and so
take the horses out myself I may secure several sixpences,
and a better groom, though I say it myself, there cannot
be."
All his farm work was conducted in a spirit of patriar-
chal piety. In 1863 he writes : " The Gleaners have had a
good season, so they tell me. I always mention in my
Sermons at this time the beautiful anxiety of God for the
Poor in the laws of farming which he himself ordained ; as
we read in Deuteronomy, ' When thou reapest thy field
thou shalt not reap the corners of thy fields, neither shalt
thou go over them again. They shall be for the poor, and
the fatherless and the widow.' They tell me that several of
the Women this year have gleaned a double Winchester
bushel ; that is sixteen Gallons Bread — enough for one
person for Three Months of the coming year — and what a
help this must be for a poor family. My Old Man's Wife
and Children have the earpicking, as they call it, of my
Wheaten-arish. And after these come God's Birds — who
neither sow, nor reap, nor gather into Barns — and yet they
have a Father in Heaven who feedeth them. Our Blessed
no LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
Saviour never gave us a lovelier image o{ trust in an unseen
hand than when he commanded us to consider the Bird
cared for by God himself — gathering in the fields its daily-
food, and resting at night, with its head beneath its wing,
upon the peaceful bough, without one anxiety about the
morrow, being very sure that there is One who will give it
to-morrow's bread. And for this reason it was that our
Ancestors of the Church, who selected the Gospels for the
day, chose to be read just as Harvest closes in the Gospel
of the Birds and the Flowers — the 15th Sunday after
Trinity."
In 1852 he wrote to his brother: —
" My Dear Claud,
..." You talk of Weather. It was far worse from
the 25th of Octr. to Novr. 8th. It was Storm as well as Rain
all that while. My Cliff Wheat was in the Blade and we
thought it would snap with the Wind. So on the 8th I had
Two Crosses made of Wood, and on the Transome of one
was carved and the letters painted red — ' Imperat Ventis '
from St. Luke, i.e., ' He commandeth the Winds,' and on
the other, ' Dixit Mari, Tace,' ' He said unto the Sea, " Peace
Be Still." ' They were fixed and consecrated by Six O'Clock
in the Evening, amidst so fierce a Gale that the Carpenter
could hardly hear the Service on the Cliff. But the Prince
of the Air heard it and obeyed. By Twelve O'Clock there
was a Calm, and no Storm from the S.-W. and N.-W. — the
points breasted by the Crosses — has entered that field since.
Could any Man doubt the Power of Words, and the [word
omitted] who saw and witnessed, as all our People have,
these things ? "
" Wheat," he writes elsewhere, " is the only plant which
never was found indigenous, never had a native land, was
never found wild. Its first mention is in the Books of
DIVINE ORIGIN OF CORN iii
Moses, who marks a date by the word ' Wheatharvest,'
The first recorded use is for an addition to the Animal
Sacrifices on the Hebrew Altar — a cake was made of
wheaten flour and oil, and laid on the Altar, with a measure
of Wine at every Offering. Our translation calls the Cake
a Meat Offering, because in old English days meat signified
bread. So this supernatural grain, for it was one, was de-
livered by God himself to Moses on Sinai, at the very time
its usage was first commanded as a Sacred Oblation. Bread
likewise was selected by our Blessed Redeemer as the Food
for our Souls in the Solemn Sacrament of His Gospel.
Wheat was always therefore the awful corn of God the
Trinity. We had in our 8 acres 600 Shocks — a noble pro-
portion for this Country. Is it not singular that now that
I want a double quantity I have it ? But I have remarked
through life that of the two kinds of wealth, one — Man's —
Gold and coin — has been refused to me. The other — God's
— the riches of the Earth and Air and Water, have been
made over to me in kind and happy measure. They called
the Sunlight yesterday ' Mr. Hawker's weather,' and there
was real delight among the reapers at ' the finest sheaves
they ever cut or bound.' "
How beautiful, too, is his description, in the following
letter, of the mysterious processes of germination : —
"July 24, 1864.
" I had no greater pleasure than in this Season when the
anxiety of a whole year is requited by the ripe sheaves and
the groaning waggon. But somehow or other our God
generally bestows on us such weather that we gather the
fruits in their season, and when we remember how many
thousand years the great promise has been fulfilled, ' While
the Earth remaineth Summer and Winter, Seedtime and
Harvest, shall not fail,' we ought not to doubt but earnestly
112 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
believe that it will come to pass this year also. As I told
them in Church last Sunday, None but God could do it.
They go out pompously with the Seed-drip on their arm,
and scatter the Seed on the Soil, and cover it with Earth,
and go their way. Their work is over and their part is
done. They can fulfil no more. But God and his
Angels then enter the field — a mighty power broods over
the grain and descends beneath the furrow, and the life
below begins to move, and first the blade cometh up, and
then the stalk, and then the Ear, and then the full corn in
the Ear arises into light and growth beneath the silent touch
of God. All is miracle and wonder and majesty, and the
thousands are fed as they were on Mount Tabor from the
few grains that increase and multiply in the fingers of One
who is more than Man."
One quaint harvest custom, called ' Crying the Neck,' is
described in several letters. " Some old usages," he writes,
" are preserved here still. One when the sickle is first
put in, ' God send our Master a big loaf this year and health
to eat it.' The man who reaps the last Sheaf waves it (as
the Hebrews did by God's command), runs off a little and
shouts thrice ' We have un ! ' The rest cry, ' What have ye ? '
Answer, ' A Neck, A Neck, A Neck ! ' Then all in the
field join in a loud cry, ' A Neck, A Neck, A Neck ! they
save un ! We have un ! ' that is. They — the Trinity or the
Angels — save it ; We — Master and Men — have it. The word
Nick or Neck is the old English word for Notch or Cut, as
in the Sign in London, The Swan with two Necks, which
means, the two Notches or cuts in the beak whereby the
owners marked their birds. Then they plait this Neck (the
last handful) into a kind of web with the Ears upward, and
bring it to me to be hung up to a crook in the ceiling over
the Dining table. The old one is taken down and given to
the Birds. This is one of the few old customs which sur-
THE VICAR'S GENEROSITY 113
vive, and is no doubt a vestige of better and more pious
times, when in all things God was acknowledged and praised.
They also at saving the Mow of Wheat when nearly finished,
hoist a sheaf upon a pike, and cry three times — ' If it's a
Cross I'll bear it : If it's a Crown I'll wear it ; ' and this they
call crying the Cross Sheaf. They all know, and Cann in
particular, that I like every ancient custom, and so I think
they practice it more here than perhaps in other farms.
They cried the Neck this year ^ as though they thought to
interest me perhaps to cheer me."
Hawker's letters are full of allusions to his cattle and his
crops. It would be tedious to collect them all here.
His liberality to the men who worked for him was
excessive. A labourer just going home in the evening, and
called back to do a job which took him about five minutes,
would get a shilling and a supper. A man minding a horse
and carriage at the door would get half-a-crown. It is easy
to understand how the Vicar's financial troubles arose.
Such generosity may not have been judicious, but at any
rate it was disinterested. He was one of those men who
are by nature incapable of economy. He could not extri-
cate himself from his difficulties by a process of retrench-
ment which would involve meanness to those about him.
Naturally, men were very ready to work for the Parson, and
the Parson knew why well enough.
" Do you know, John," he said to his coachman, " why
men don't work so hard for me as they do for other people ? "
" Can't say, sir. " " Well, I '11 tell 'e. They say to themselves :
' Hawker's got plenty of money to spend.' " One day he
was giving instructions to his old man Tom Lang. Tom
was deaf, and kept saying, in a tone of inquir)-, " Sorr ? "
The Vicar was tired of repeating every sentence, and
thought the old man could hear better than he pretended.
' 1863, just after his wife's death.
H
114 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
" Don't I speak plain English, Tom ? " he exclaimed.
*' Sorr ? " said Tom. " Will you have a pint of beer, Tom ? "
said the Vicar, without changing his voice. " Thankee,
Sorr," said Tom. " Ah ! " said the Vicar, " you heard
that well enough."
" He was a bit sharp if you offended him," said a woman
who was once in his service. " But Lord bless you, it was
soon over, if anyone could hold theirselves back for two
minutes. You could have his heart out almost if you
pleased him. When Tom was a bit drinky the Parson
avoided him, as he was afraid of speaking too sharply to
the old man."
He was very restless and impatient. At dinner, instead
of ringing a bell, he would walk out and shout for the
maidens by name, and if they didn't come instantly he
would fume about, exclaiming, " Not a soul in the place.
All gone out, as usual." "Once," says a friend, "when we
were preparing to leave the house, the stableman was not
to be found, so we put to the horse ourselves. Mr. Hawker
was in a fury, and shouted up and down for John. John
appeared, and said he had been doing something in the
field. ' It's a lie ! ' shouted the Vicar, but his anger was all
over in a moment, and he and John as friendly as ever.
His servants understood him and took no offence. It was
just the same with the farmers and others. It didn't
matter who it was : he treated them just the same, saying
straight out what he thought. He wasn't particular what
he said, and he used to say some very hard things some-
times, but it was soon forgotten and forgiven."
Once he exclaimed, when a boy had angered him, " To
think that the Almighty should have put guts in such a
boy ! "
It may well be imagined that his servants, while they
loved him, stood somewhat in awe of him, and would
RIGHTEOUS MEN 115
shrink from being the bearers of unwelcome messages. One
day Jimmy Vinson, his man, was sent in to Bude with a
waggon, and a gentleman riding past noticed that the horses
looked thin. He drew rein and shouted to Jimmy, " in a
large voice," as the narrator says, " Your horses are poor.
Tell your master to give them more corn," " Wod e plaise
ta tell'n o't yurzel, sar ? " said Jimmy, and jogged along on
the head of his waggon, taking no further notice.^
Another time Jimmy had to sow a field of wheat, and the
Parson was very particular as to the method of sowing. A
certain quantity of seed was given him, and he was told to
cover the field with it, and have none left. When he had
finished, however, he had a peck or two over, " Parson ull
storm if he sees this yere," he said to himself. So he
quietly buried it,
" Parson Hawker would always have his way," says an
old parishioner, " and carry a thing through that he was
minded to. When the workmen were there restoring the
church he insisted on their attending service. They were
just tradesmen, yu knaw ; strangers ; and they very much
objected ; but he would have his way. He looked upon 'em
as ratjus [righteous] men, holy men, being employed upon
the church, and all the time there was no greater
scamps to be found on the earth. He didn't knaw
they was drunk every night up to Cross Town. They
was labourers in the house of God, and consequently
ratjus men."
Hawker was not one of those who condemn a moderate
use of alcohol.
" The error of Tea-totalism," he writes, " and all such
Societies, is that false principles of Action are adopted.
Instead of ' Do thus and thus for the sake of God and his
I For this and many other anecdotes I am indebted to Aliss Amy Tape,
of Coombe.
ii6 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
law/ it is ' Do so and so in order to come within the rules
of our Club.' "
When his men were working in the field, the Vicar would
take them out a bottle of gin. As he poured out for each
man, he would stand between him and the wind, so that he
might take it comfortably. The Vicar himself rarely-
touched spirits. " It is now near 12 years," he writes in
1 86 1, "since I swallowed fermented fluids of any sort. A
man is said to be a fool or a physician at forty. I was both.
Said Dr. Budd, ' Your irritable brain cannot bear one glass
of wine.' My answer was, ' It is no sacrifice. I will taste
no more.' Nor have I since."
He was not always, perhaps, judicious in serving out
liquor to his men. Mr. Baring-Gould tells a story of his
discharging a coachman for drunkenness, when he had twice
given the man a bottle of whisky. One of Hawker's
neighbours, however, Mr. W. G. Harris, a farmer in the
parish, gave the correct version of the story in a local paper,
and this shows the Vicar in a better light.
" The facts," says Mr. Harris, " are these. Mr. Hawker
went on to Barnstaple [from Bideford] to see a physician,
Dr. Budd, and gave his man a bottle of gin on starting,
telling him it would keep him warm on the road. The man
was told that if his master did not arrive at the New Inn
(Bideford) by the six o'clock train he was to stable the
horses for the night. The master did not arrive, and Sten-
lake then enjoyed the bottle of gin with the ostler, and was
about retiring for the night, a little elevated, thinking Jack
even better than his master, when behold the nine o'clock
train brings his Reverence to the New Inn. He calls to
Stenlake to be quick and get the carriage. ' No,' says
Stenlake. ' You gave me the gin to drink, and I have
obeyed your orders. You told me to bed the horses if you
did not come by the six train, and I have done it.' This
THE PARSON AND THE DOCTOR 117
was too much for the parson. He tells a kindly policeman
to see that his man does not come to grief that night,
drives off alone ; and does not take Stenlake, as represented,
but does come to grief by failing sight or patience three
miles after starting. Calls up a labouring man to accom-
pany him, and reaches home safely. The guide and
companion returns next day on foot. Poor Stenlake walks
fourteen miles next evening, and stops another night, and
the third day reaches Morwenstow. The man's wife goes
and sees Mr. Hawker, and she puts things all right, and the
man was again installed in office. The Parson never said
a word to the poor fellow : he knew better. The man was
never discharged from the Vicarage."
Some of the old people still living at Morwenstow have a
warm recollection of the Vicar's charity. " Gude to the
poor!" cried one old dame, with tears in her eyes. "His
horses might be to the plough, but they must be taken off
and sent for Dr. Braund, if he heard there was anybody ill."
" He would be intensely impatient," says the doctor, " until
my arrival, and would walk up and down before the house,
saying, ' Why tarry the wheels of Braund's chariot ? ' He
always saw that I was paid."
Many years ago, one of Hawker's brothers was in practice
at Stratton, and was Parish doctor for Morwenstow. A
labourer's children were down with fever, and the Vicar
considered that Dr. Hawker had neglected them. He went
to the house, and when he saw the children he exclaimed,
with tears in his eyes, " I'm ashamed I have such a brother."
Whenever he came to a cottage door, he would pause on
the threshold, and say, with lifted hand, " Peace be to this
house."
A parishioner mentions a little incident that illustrates
both the Vicar's gusty temper and his underlying kindness
of heart : —
ii8 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
" I was over at the Vicarage in haymaking time. The
men were making the rick, and the Parson was looking on,
giving directions. * See you make it stickle,' I remember
hearing him say. One of the men remarked that someone
was coming riding over from Welcombe. It was a small
farmer, who had come to sell him a horse. The parson
shook his fingers before the horse's eye, but the horse did
not appear to perceive the motion. Wrathfully, in a
stern loud voice, * Why, you're trying to sell me a blind
horse.' The man protested that he knew nothing
the matter with the horse. I don't think Mr. H.
bought the horse, but he ordered one of the men to go in
and bring out a plate of meat and pudding and a pint of
beer. He told me that the man was suffering from cancer,
' the most mournful of diseases,' he added, and gave him a
note for Dr. Budd to get him admitted to Barnstaple Infir-
mary."
A letter dated 14 December 1863, the year of his first
wife's death, shows how he cared for the poor every year at
Christmas time. " I am ordering Xmas Beef, &c.," he
writes, " not for a Feast, but for the Aumonry the day after.
A pound of Beef and a pound of Plum Pudding to every
poor man's house in the parish, more than usual this year
in memoriam. It would have done you good to look on if
you had consented to come. But I must be a disembodied
Voice ' like the Son of Zachary,' floating through the Air of
the Wilderness to proclaim the approach of my Lord."
But it was not only the poor and needy whom he
regarded. He took an interest in the welfare of all his
parishioners, and especially the younger ones who had their
way to make in life. He was quick to recognise ability,
and ever ready to extend a helping hand. There were
more than one who owed to him their first step on the
ladder of success. His influence with " great people " was
A TESTIMONIAL 119
notorious in the parish, and a letter from "Passon Hawker"
was held to work wonders, either in obtaining an appoint-
ment, or the tenancy of a house, or, sometimes in getting a
man out of trouble with the magistrates. The following
testimonial is an instance of the first kind: —
" May ii., 1852.
" As the Vicar of this parish, wherein Mr. William Adams
was born, and brought up beneath my own pastoral guid-
ance and care, I am very happy to be able to render my
strong and unreserved testimony to his blameless demeanour,
personal goodness and moral excellence. I have watched
the progress of his mind and conduct for many years, and
my confidence in his powers and energies has been so
strong that I have augured for him the attainment of
success and Fame, like that of his own ancestor Sir William
Adams ^ in the same noble science of Medical Art.
" I heartily pray that my prognostic may be in some
degree fulfilled ; but be this as it may, I am thoroughly per-
suaded that in whatsoever Position his professional exer-
tions may be required he will fulfil his duties with thorough
integrity and judicious zeal ; in a manner too that will
sustain the good repute he won in his native parish, with
the true sympathy and constant approval of his faithful
friend, the Vicar of Morwenstow.
"R. S. Hawker."
An extract from a letter written by a Morwenstow man
shows the relations which existed between the Vicar and
the young people of his parish, and the affection with which
they regard his memory. The writer, by the way, is a
Wesleyan.
" I received such kindness from both Mr. and Mrs.
' Founder of the Eye Infirmary at Exeter. See p. 50.
120 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
Hawker when a young man that even at this remote date
it would afford me very great pleasure to render any little
service to one of their family. I am a native of Morwen-
stow, and through Mr. Hawker's kindly influence obtained
a clerkship in a branch of the Board of Trade. After leav-
ing my home I was in friendly correspondence with him
for nearly twenty years up to the time of his death."
When his orthodox Anglican friends rebuked him for
thus assisting heretics, the Vicar would reply, " I like to
give them a little comfort in this world, for I know what
discomfort awaits them in the next."
CHAPTER IX
Hawker as a Churchman — Views on Science and Re-
ligion— His Preaching — Ideas of Baptism — Epitaphs —
Church Services — Relations with Dissenters
The last chapter dealt with the Vicar's personal qualities
as a human being. We have now to regard him in his
particular capacity of parish priest. The present chapter
is not designed, however, as a complete account of his
theological views, for this would absorb most of the book,
but merely as an introductory sketch and a nucleus for
certain anecdotes.
He was a churchman of an original and independent
type. " I have always shrunk with loathing," he writes,
in 1862, "from all those parties in the Church whose chief
and only aim seems to be to exalt some vain, weak, wordy
Clergyman into a Saint, and to call themselves the
Followers of Mr. So-and-So instead of meek and unnoted
disciples of Jesus Christ. I dislike these Popular Hordes
whether of High Church or Low. I have never allowed
myself to be identified with either, and had a thousand
times rather be as I am, lonely and alone, than share the
Fame of Great Preachers and Influential ! ! Men."
Although the Tractarian movement had begun to stir the
mind of Oxford in his undergraduate days, he left the
University too early to be much concerned in it, and he did
not always agree with its leaders. Of Pusey's sermons he
writes, " They appeared tome exceedingly unsound and
121
122 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
heterodox, but it was in the direction which I should have
called Calvinistic and Low. His sermon on Sin after
Baptism might have been written by Calvin himself."
Hawker's innate love of symbolism, and intense reverence
for the past, were enough of themselves to shape his course.
In reading for orders, however, he seems to have come
under distinctly Protestant influences. One of his note-
books, dated 183 1-2, and styled 'Miscellanea Vitae
Solitariae,' contains an analysis of Hey's Lectures on the
Thirty-Nine Articles, bitterly antagonistic to Roman
Catholicism. But his opinion of this book afterwards
changed. [See page 385.]
The book which, after the Bible, chiefly influenced him,
was the ' Summa Theologiae ' of St. Thomas Aquinas.
But the Bible was the rock on which he built his faith.
He always took its words in their literal meaning, and
never explained them away, as the custom is, to suit the
requirements of modern science.
There are probably few church-going people nowadays
who would not laugh at his belief in demons, angels, witch-
craft, and so forth. They may laugh at him ; but, if they
do, they laugh also at the Bible — at the Gospel — and they
cannot consistently profess the Christian faith.
To Hawker's mind any scientific proposition that ran
counter to " the written word of God " stood thereby self-
condemned. He expressed his views on evolution in the
following letter to a nephew, which was published in a
Plymouth paper : —
"You ask me to 'put into one of my nut-shells' the
pith and marrow of the controversy, which at this time per-
vades the English mind, as to the claims of Science and
Faith. Let me try : The material universe — so the sages
allege — is a vast assemblage of atoms or molecules, ' motes
in the sunbeam ' of science, — which has existed for myri-
SCIENCE AND FAITH 123
ads of ages under a perpetual system of evolution, re-
structure, and change. This mighty mass is traversed by
the forces electrical, or magnetic, or with other kindred
names ; and these, by their incessant and indomi-
table action, are adequate to account for all the phenomena
of the world of matter, and of man. The upheaval of a
continent ; the drainage of a sea ; the creation of a metal ;
nay, the origin of life, and the development of a species
in plant, or animal, or man ; these are the achievements of
fixed and natural laws among the atomic materials, under
the vibration of the forces alone. Thus far the vaunted
discoveries of science are said to have arrived. Let us
indulge them with the theory that these results, for they
are nothing more, are accurate and real. But still, a
thoughtful mind will venture to demand, whence did these
atoms derive their existence ? and from what, and from
whom, do they inherit the propensities wherewithal they
are imbued ? And tell me, most potent seignors, what is
the origin of these forces ? And with whom resides the
impulse of their action and the guidance of their control ?
' Nothing is so difficult as a beginning.' Your philosopher
is mute ! he has reached the horizon of his domains, and to
him all beyond is doubt, and uncertainty, and guess. We
must lift the veil. We must pass into the border-land
between the two worlds, and there enquire at the Oracles
of Revelation touching the Unseen and Spiritual powers
which thrill through the mighty sacrament of the visible
creation. We perceive, being inspired, the realms of sur-
rounding space peopled by immortal creatures of the air —
" ' Myriads of spiritual things that walk unseen.
Both when we wake and when we sleep.'
"These are the existences, in aspect as 'young men in
white garments,' who inhabit the void place between the
124 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
worlds and their Maker, and their God. Behold the
Battalions of the Lord of Hosts ! the workers of the sky !
the faithful and intelligent vassals of God the Trinity !
We have named them in our own poor and meagre
language ' the Angels,' but this title merely denotes one of
their subordinate offices — messengers from on high. The
Gentiles called them ' gods,' but we ought to honour them
by a name that should embrace and interpret their lofty
dignity as an intermediate army between the kingdom and
the throne ; the Centurions of the stars, and of men ; the
commanders of the forces and their guides. These are
they that each with a delegated office fulfil what their
* King Invisible ' decrees ; not with the dull, inert
mechanism of fixed and Natural Law, but with the un-
slumbering energy and the rational obedience of Spiritual
Life. They mould the atom ; they wield the force ; and,
as Newton rightly guessed, they rule the World of matter
beneath the silent Omnipotence of God.
" 'And he dreamed, and behold a ladder set up on the
earth, and the top of it reached to Heaven ; and behold
the angels of God ascending and descending on it. And
behold the Lord stood above it.' — Genesis xxviii. 12.
Tolle lege, my dear nephew.
" Your affectionate uncle,
" R. S. Hawker."
The following extract from his MSS. also indicates the
nature of the arguments with which he would meet attacks
on the Bible based on the discoveries of geology : —
"That the Earth rolled on in its Place long Centuries of measured
Time, before the Race of Man was made, is the plausible and
innocent Theory of modern Sages, learned in Stone. But it by
no means follows that it was therefore devoid of Inhabitants,
capable of Earthly Abode and local life. Myriads, Myriads, of
EARTH BEFORE ADAM 125
intellectual Creatures, descended, and descend, in gradual
attribute from God the bodiless to Adam the First Man. Which
Race or Kind of these, may have peopled or dwelt in the awful
Scenery of the Pre- Adamite Earth, we do not yet know. But
there was something strongly congenial with the majestic Nature
of the Seraph and the Archangel in the vast and ponderous
adjuncts of that wondrous World. The Stature of those Starry
Multitudes, — their mighty Presence, -^and superhuman manner of
life, were far more coherent with the gigantic animals, the
mountainous Trees, and the earth-shouldering Rivers of the
Primal Globe than the Sons of Men could be. This Orb of ours,
fair and excellent as it is, may, after all, have been merely the
subdued and chastened Relique, the exhausted abode of former
and spiritual existences fraught with loftier life than ours.
Nothing hinders that those deathless Hosts of air, when the
Hour was come, may have glided away to occupy some nobler
Star, which aforetime may have grieved through long ages of
lonely light, a gleaming Solitude."
In arriving at his convictions in doctrinal matters he
relied far more on meditation than on reading. This in-
dependent action of mind — a result of his isolation — is
marked at the outset by the title-page of one of his early
manuscript note-books : —
" 1837-8.
* By their fruits ye shall know them !
He went up into the Mountain to pray.
And when the Evening was come,
He w^as there
Alone.
126 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
The countless notes in this and similar books on
questions of conduct, doctrine, and ritual, show how his
mind was absolutely possessed by the religious spirit, and
was continually at work, seeking after truth, or comment-
ing, in his own characteristic language, on passages and
episodes of the Bible story. A few examples of these
notes will indicate how the Vicar was occupied in many a
quiet hour of his lonely life :
" 1838.
" Novr. XV. Recovering from dangerous illness.
" Thoughts.
" The Catholic Church defines the Eucharist to be a com-
munication of the Great Sacrifice. The Romanists say a
Perpetuation. Now cf.
" Psalms.
" I find that the psalmodic phrases were meant to come into the
mind in hours of solitude, trial, pain. Thus with me since con-
finement to my bed. The words of David have arisen to my lips
— the Manual of Memory and Mind. Cf. the Orientalism and
the simplicity of the phrase, ' He hath made me to drink of his
pleasures as out of a river.' "
" Rhetoric.
" Read to-day (Novr. 15 1838) the beautiful Apostrophe of the
Bp. of Exon. ' You may take from me my See, my Robe ; But
my integrity to Heaven I will preserve inviolate.' "
"The Eucharist,
. . . "We say a change, though not the Romanist change.
We assert a Presence, though not the incarnate Presence." . . .
"Methodism. 1838.
" 'The Wesleyans tell me, sir, that they have increased wonder-
fully; that their sect has subscribed ;!^90,ooo in a short time to
MS. NOTES 127
support their chapels.' What does that prove? All the Rich
Jews in our Saviour's time were Sadducees, which denied Angel
and Spirit and the Resurrection."
"Robes. 1838.
" What were the Ornaments of Ministers in the Second Year of
King Edward the Sixth ? Find and use.
[Added] "I have done this eleven years. 1849. R. S. H."
" Psalms, May 29 — Sunday.
" 139-
" Space (the measured Universe) is part of God's Presence :
The Sun and His Planets — the Stars fixed and moving — are
scattered like jewels over the Robe of God. His Presence en-
folds Space and all therein. This Psalm relates the boundless and
universal Presence and Providence of God."
"One Faith.
" He entered not in any casual bark, but into one of the ships
which was Simon's. Only safety here and rest."
" Church and State.
" Bishops made by the State ! ! Idiots ! How were Bishops
ordained and the Church carried on when States persecuted the
Church ? till Constantine ? "
"Ordination.
" Some priests undervalue their office — true. Still this does
not impair their function. There are whose bellies God fills with
hid treasure.
"And when we do recall the course of the Apostolic trans-
mission from oldest time. When we commence with its origin
in the Saxon Hermitage or the Cornish Cell. When we trace its
increase from the confluence of other streams of undoubted and
Apostolic source — till it rolls in stern and majestic volume through
change of dynasty and of kings — tinged but unperverted by
128 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
Romish innovation ^ — darkened but uninterrupted by popular fury
— I think we must perceive that the Spirit of God must have
breathed upon the face of those waters. '
The following lines, written in the same note-book, are
now published for the first time, having been discovered
too late to be included in the new edition of Hawker's
poems : —
"APOSTOLIC SUCCESSION.
" Be thy heart faithful and thy bearing bold,
As stood Elijah on the mount of old,
Tho' thine the remnant hid in cave and glen,
And the false prophets thrice two hundred men
(Alternative first verse.)
" Stand as He stood upon that Mount of old,
He of the faithful heart and bearing bold.
When the true flock had fled to cave and glen.
And Baal's thick groves were bold with prophet men.
" Speak as he spake whose spirit was not bound,
Tho' foemen grasp'd and shame and peril frown'd,
But sternly stood and shook with fearless hands
The chain whose clank awoke the slumbering lands.
" Watch ! as he watch'd the witness of the Lord,
Driven to the Patmian shore, cast out, abhorr'd.
Yet Faith could set that exile's spirit free.
Till Heaven's own visions filled the lonely sea.
' The Vicar did not always maintain this disparaging tone towards the
Roman Church, for, thirty years later (in 1869), we find him writing: " All
tends to the Old Prophecy that, when the three Centuries were complete,
dating from 1568, when Bess was excommunicate, England would fast become
Catholic or Infidel. I have always thought it very bad taste in the High
Church Party to revile the Catholic Church. All of good they possess is
thence derived, and not one true doctrine can they hold but it was treasured
up in their ancestral house."
HAWKER'S PREACHING 129
" What tho' the Mom be dim and dark the night ?
Wait, for at Evening time it shall be light.
Lo ! where they glide in fields above the storm
The Prophet's mighty shade, the Apostle's radiant form."
These stirring lines express the polemical side of the
Vicar's character, in his lifelong conflict with the enemies
of the Church. But while he was proud and unyielding
towards men, he was humble towards God. Under the
heading of " Humility " he writes, " Cherish a Spirit of
Sacrifice, i.e., a Bent Mind. Wish what God wishes."
As a preacher he had remarkable powers, which in a
wider sphere would doubtless have brought him fame, and
he cultivated this natural talent by a careful study of the
rules of rhetoric. His manuscript books are full of notes
on this subject. His sermons were didactic and descrip-
tive rather than argumentative. One of his notes shows
the principle that underlay his preaching : —
"Rhetoric.
" Even the language of persuasion seems misplaced in the en-
forcement of Holy Truth. It is like recommending Wares for
Sale. A mere enunciation of sacred facts, without anticipation of
the possibility of disbelief, appears to me the most adapted to
the Words of God. A simple oracular communication is best."
The following extracts from a sermon (dated 1831)
delivered in Stratton Church, on behalf of sufferers in the
Irish famine, give proof of his oratorical power: —
" Brethren ! we are gathered together this day to listen to an
exceedingly bitter cry. The voice of famine from another land.
The loud necessities of the Irish people. They are wild with
hunger. How came this to pass is not a tale for this place. The
shrunken hands of a nation are stretched forth unto us, and that
is enough. Whole crowds have died, ruad with want, and hardly
I
130 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
was there anyone to bury them. You would see it as you passed
along at this time. Men tottering, but not with age ; frail in the
midst of their days. You would shudder, on the one hand at the
babe laid at the breast in vain, and on the other, at the woman
that would fain deny the morsel to her child, and will not have
compassion on the son of her womb ! These things have been,
are, and will be yet again. These men, covered with the sores of
human life, the pain, the poverty, and the grief, are laid to-day at
the gate of our hearts. They desire to be fed with the crumbs
that fall from our table. If we were heathen men we could hardly
shut our ears to their cry. Their flesh is like our own ; their
blood the self-same colour. They utter the words of a man ; they
weep human tears. The savage of the Western Wood will pour
oil and wine into the wounds of the unknown traveller ; and the
argument of the wild man is, ' He was born of woman, and so
was I.' But since we are Christian men we can hardly run the
risk of turning away from these our brethren.
" But another sullen thought may awake. We cannot afford
this thing. We have not wherewithal to obey the command of
our Master which is in heaven. That I take leave to gainsay.
Remember the days of old. Consider the years of many
generations. No man ever yet felt the lack of that small sum
which he lent unto the Lord. The cost of sin may wear out
wealth, as a moth fretteth a garment — the wages of iniquity are
high — but Christian charity in many a long generation hath not
wasted one fair Estate. The Bank of Heaven is very sure.
** The thousands of the rich and the pennies of the poor are of
the same value before Him. It is the motive within — our feelings
and our thoughts — that will be weighed in the balances of God.
. . . The smallest coin of the land may bear the image and
superscription of our goodwill. The rain-drop will add to the
stream, the single grain to the gathered heap. Who can tell ? If
the history of one of your small pieces of money were to be writ-
ten down, we might trace it across the waters ; we might mark it
enter into the hands of some wasted man, and hear how the tears
of gratitude fell upon his cheek, as he gave it for bread. . . .
THE JUDGMENT DAY 131
The famished man shall lift up his lean hand to his God, and your
God, and bless you. Grey Fathers and feeble Dames, that know
you not, shall blend a memorial of you with their morning and
evening prayer.
" The same God will give you back the kindness you show, the
harvest of that seed ! Such shall be your earthly reward. But
there is more to tell. We shall go into the ground, and be for-
gotten dust. The spirits of all flesh will be gathered into their
place to bide their time. The feet of future men will echo here —
men it may be of strange garb and altered speech will stand where
you sleep, and wonder whose names they be that are well nigh
worn out from the ancient stone. And you will be cold beneath
— unconscious — mute — but not for ever. For He cometh ! For
He cometh ! to judge the earth. The day will dawn : the books be
opened and the thrones set. The sea from her weedy caverns
will cast up her dead : the fast-bound grave resign. A vast and
moving multitude will throng from the East and from the West,
from the North and from the South — and be tried — every man
for his own soul. By Pound and Talent : by land and circum-
stance and local light. The Wild Indian by the creed of his
Fathers. The hot Moor by the clime wherein he dwelt accord-
ing to the current of his blood ; black and comely in proportion
to the law they had and the land wherein they were born. They
that had a law — an Apostle speaketh — by that law : they that had
not a law by the small voice within. And then the people of our
native England will be called on, the land that is a light to the
Gentiles, a continual star to guide men from the East and from
the West to worship the Christian's God. They to whom so much
hath been given must go forward to reckon with their God. The
Dwellers of this place — we who look on each other's faces now —
the busy Angel will bring forward the things that witness for and
against. Hearken ! Would you be glad in that breathless hour
if poor and miserable men should rush from their ranks and cry
unto you : ' These then were they that sent us help in our anguish,
that were kind unto us when we were minished and brought
low ! '
132 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
" Should you not rejoice if the Earthly Shepherd of this flock
could say with unfearing voice, ' Lord, here am I with those
whom thou hast given me ? ' and would not your hearts burn
within you if the voice of the Lord as the sound of many waters
should come forth from the cloud unto you ? ' I was an hungered
and ye fed me : I was thirsty and ye gave me to drink — ye did
it unto these my brethren — ye did it unto me.' Would not this
be a happy scene ?
"Then choose you for this day's part how it shall be. If we
will not melt — if we close our fingers upon the coin and hereafter
pay it down for some indulgence of our own : we shall be very
sorry on a certain time. The voices of many spirits will chide the
selfish shadow hereafter. Sad and reproachful faces will move
around him in the land of souls. Yes ! there is a place where the
keen remembrance of every neglect of the law of love will goad
men for ever and ever — an awful scene ! where there is neither
day nor night to bring sweet change ; nor storm nor cloud to vary
the dismal blank ; where the human food we keep back is clean
out of mind, and the silver and gold we grasp have no name :
where a man will say ' what is the hour ? ' and his neighbour will
answer ' Eternity.' But all this while the Angels of God will
echo their joyful psalm to welcome the loving Saint to his quiet
and Blessed home. Hearken ! to the melody of Heaven ! ' He
hath dispersed, he hath given to the poor, his reward shall be
eternal ; ' and hearken yet again to the voice that cometh from
one like unto the Son of Man ! ' I was an hungered and he fed
me. I was thirsty and he gave me to drink. Well done, thou
good and faithful servant. Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord."
An amusing story is told by the Vicar's sister with re-
ference to his sermons. " When first ordained," she
writes, " Robert always preached from manuscript, so that
a large number of sermons had collected, and he had them
burnt. A clergyman told him he ought to be ashamed of
himself: how did he know but that they might have done
good to many had they been printed ? His answer was,
SERMONS AND TURNIPS 133
' My dear C, I had all the ashes spread over a turnip
field, and I assure you there was not a single turnip more
in that field than in any other ! ' "
In later years he always preached extempore, and his
readiness of resource was surprising. Once at a neigh-
bouring church, on some special occasion, the preacher
failed to appear, and at the last moment Hawker was
asked to take his place. He began, " And the names of
the Twelve Apostles were these " (reciting them from
memory), and preached a sermon which is remembered to
this day by those who heard it. In one of his note-books
he records another impromptu utterance : " To-day I was
called on suddenly to say Grace at the Funeral Luncheon.
I said, hardly knowing why : ' Our Fathers did eat Manna
in the Wilderness, and are dead; O Lord, feed us with thy
mercy and nourish us with thy Salvation."
In 1864 he writes: "I served both my Churches
yesterday, and when the Valentine family came into
Wellcombe Church unexpectedly, after beinghereat Matins,
I was able to change my Sermon on the Spot from the
Gospel on which I had just preached to them here to the
Test of Abraham, the Lesson for Evensong."
Sometimes the Vicar aimed his discourse at members of
the congregation. A former parishioner says, "There was
a girl from Ilfracombe once came to stay in Morwenstow,
with a Wesleyan family. She came to church wearin' a
gold chain around her neck and bracelets, such as many
ladies du wear. So Mr. Hawker preached on the vanity
of adorning the person. I've seen people get up and walk
out when e's been preachin' at 'em. He didn't mention
no names, but they knew as well as anything he was
meanin' them."
In his church services Hawker seems to have employed
but little ceremonial. They drew their impressiveness from
134 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
his own personality. He was one of the first Anglican
clergymen, however, to revive the use of the vestments. A
description of his appearance in these is given by a lady of
the parish, Mrs. Waddon Martyn of Tonacombe Manor.
" Forty-seven years ago," she writes, " Mr. Hawker
christened my eldest son, in full vestments (as he always
did) — alb — magnificent purple velvet cope, fastened with a
large sort of brooch — a white stole very richly worked in
gold, an exact copy, he said, of St Cuthbert's, found on
opening the coffin still preserved (in Durham Cathedral).
Parents were not allowed in Church when their children
were christened. The service as done by him was most
impressive. Receiving the child from the Godmother, then
an almost unknown thing, he poured the Baptismal water
three times — Father, Son and Holy Ghost — on the child,
and then with the Child in his arms walked up nearly to
the first chancel steps, and then held it high up in his
arms as he said — ' We receive this child into the con-
gregation of Christ's flock, and do sign him with the sign of
the Cross,' which he did most impressively. Then return-
ing to the Font he gave the child back to the God-parent.
. . . I also well remember going to Matins with a friend on
St. John's Day. Our seat then was behind the Pulpit.
We heard the Vestry door unlocked, and soon from out the
dark and wormwood-strewn chancel, his great magnificent
voice said, ' And now in the Presence of God and of His
Angels let us rehearse the legend of St. John.' — Nothing
else at all as service."
In one of his letters, Hawker says — " I always observe
the old Church custom of the Minister's Kiss of Peace,
which I give after the sentence, ' We receive this child, &c.,
and on the forehead. ' " Mrs. Martyn also sends two
characteristic letters addressed to her husband on the
subject of God-parents : —
SPONSORS 135
"Feb. xix., 1856.
" Dear Sir,
"On the reception of your inquiries as to Spon-
sors of the Blood and a Fourth, I deemed it to be my duty
under the especial circumstances to carry the sacrifice of
self to its utmost limit. Therefore, although I had repelled
grandfathers and grandmothers from many a Baptism before,
and my People had acquiesced in that exercise of personal
responsibility on my part, I submitted to your demand for
their appearance at the Font because of the letter of the
29th Canon. I merely and in consonance with my well
known parochial usage disallowed the Fourth Sponsor. I
did not, as is my usage, refer to the Bishop for decision of
doubt, because as I understood you were to appear before
him as a Candidate for orders I was loth that thro' me any
impression should be conveyed to his Lordship unfavour-
able in matters of Baptismal Discipline to your Father's
son. But your persistence allows me no choice. I shall
refer both questions to our Diocesan Judge, and render him
Canonical obedience in both."
" Feb. xxiv., 1856.
" Dear Sir,
"I have received from the Bishop to-night a letter
of reply. His Lordship assents to my admission of a
grandfather and a grandmother to be Sponsors for your
son. He also ratifies my interpretation of the Rubrical
Limit of Three in number and Three only."
The following fragment, taken from one of Hawker's
manuscript books, has not hitherto been published : —
"THE SPONSOR'S LAY.
" Seven times the East hath brought the Morn
Since the child Thy Son was born.
Haste ye ! Haste I the Rite begin,
Shun the Midian Mother's Sin,
136 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
When Zipporah's Soul abhorred
The Voice of the avenging Lord.
" Call the guests and choose the Name,
Bring thy firstborn's infant frame :
Let the thrilling thought arise,
Who commanded from the Skies
Thus with seal of Blood to sign
All of Abraham's mystic line.
Vacant bring Elija's chair :
Tho' unseen his form is there,
Witness to this solemn rite.
Seal and pledge to Angels' sight,
In heavenly bower and demons' den
Of the charm'd and shielded Men.
" How they gather as we gaze.
Scenes of high and ancient days."
A few of the more striking allusions to baptism in his
note-books and letters are here collected : —
" To-day I began to baptize by consecrating the Water in my
small Silver Chalice (just enough of the Element for the occasion),
and pouring it on the head of the Child from my hand as at the
Font. February 9, 1838."
" Ridley, and other such who denied efficacy to Holy Water,
imputed it to the Water of Baptism — indeed the contrast between
the Sanctitude of the Piscina and the Font which is so constantly
made by ancient Writers establishes the power of y Baptismal
element."
" Are not Wesley and Whitfield Rivers of Dissent better than
all the Waters of Baptism ? May I not wash in them and be
clean ? Naaman,"
" Which is loveliest, the wide wide Sea rolling in beauty on, or
the Spring that fills with silent flow yon grey and moss-grown
GUARDIAN ANGELS 137
well ? The fount is fairer, for thence they draw Water to bathe
with the Holy Ghost."
" Baptism,
"You bring within your arms a little child, the offspring of
parents of earth, overshadowed with the hue of original guilt —
angels enter with your concourse at the door, and one minister-
ing Spirit unassigned. One by one, as the introductory prayers are
said, angelic movements occur. They glide in their courses along
the aisles and Roof. The angel of the church is in command.
In their eyes the child is dark. The Water dull and dim.
" But at Consecration light flashes around the Font and flows
from the Water like a sudden radiance of dawn. At the instant
of Baptism the Water falls gleamy with God upon the infant
brow. The Babe grows bright. The Halo of the Baptized
surrounds its voiceless form. Its angel touches its lip and clings
to it with guardian wing."
To Rev. W. Anderson.
"Novr. v., 1848.
" You talked, I think, to-day of a Baptism in a private
house. I trust you will not make me appear singular by
performing the Service in your coat. I always wear an
Alb, as is ordained by the Canon. Indeed, the Sacrament
is not validly delivered without ecclesiastical apparel. All
vv^ent well to-day, except that my Servant remarked your
preference for that secular and lay garment the Surplice
instead of a Clergyman's robes. However, a Deacon who
is a layman may well be excused. . . . Mrs. Anderson will
tell you that I did not read the State Service to-day — I
never do — -and that I do not like sung Psalms, because
they have never been ratified by convocation."
To Mrs. Watson. [See page 278.]
" 10 March 1861.
"You have no doubt heard of the Bishop of Oxford's
unwise attempt to alter the law which prohibits Parents
138 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
from being Sponsors : I say unwise, because when the
Service for Baptism was drawn up it was ordained that
because the Parents are the Authors of the First Bir*^h
which is from Adam and evil^ therefore they should have
nothing to do with the Second Birth which is from God and
Good. To mark the contrast between the two Births, the
Parents, the Authors of the First, were excluded from the
Second, and as another canon enjoins. No Parent is to be
urged to be even Present when his Child is baptized. I
have heard of Clergymen who would not even see their
Child till it had been baptized. But I am sorry to say
that Soapy Sam, as the Bishop of Oxford used to be called
when he was at College, will do anything to get popularity
and to win praise. Such men prosper long but not last."
"Septr, 29, 1 86 1.
" The day of St. Michael and all Angels. His name
means the Hammer of God. It is the great Battle of this
Archangel with the Dragon or Enemy which forms the
Vision wherein St. John had Apocalypse of the Latter
days. What a wonderful thing is a name. No one knows
its force and value among the Spirits and with the
Watchers of the sky. We are called in Heaven by the
name wherewith we have been baptized. Under the Old
Testament the name by which any child was circumcised
was his title in the converse of God. If you wish for proof,
read the i ith verse of the 9th Chapter of the Acts — a very
striking Scripture when you remember it is God who
speaks — who calls a man by his name and the Street in
which he dwelt. It was this knowledge about names that
made men of old cautious what they called their children ;
never more than one name until the German custom came
in of many names, and now the common people copy it,
and call their children by 3 names often at the Font. But
A FEMALE WILLIAM 139
in catechizing and marriage I never allow the usage of
more than one name."
The following letter refers to an amusing mistake at a
baptism in Hartland Church, when a female child was
inadvertently christened " William." A similar anecdote
occurs in Hawker's sketch of * Humphrey Vivian.'
To Mr. J. G. Godwin.
"Octr. 17, 1862.
" Did I, or did I not, tell you the solution of doubt in the
case of Chope's Baptism ? If I did not, your suggestion is
most singular as a coincidence. This was my statement.
There is a theological dogma — Adam contains Eve — The
Woman is concluded within the Man. Every masculine
rite enfolds and embraces the feminine share of it. Sarah
was circumcised on Abraham's thigh. Therefore William,
which is a Teutonic name, Gelthelm or Golden Crest, con-
tained and delivered Wilhelmina, and thus I told him to
register the child. But nothing I believe can save her
from a Beard."
The following two extracts relate to the baptism of his
own children. He always liked a child to cry when
baptized ; otherwise, he said, the Devil did not go out : —
"Jany. xiij., 1866.
" Morwenna Pauline was baptized on Sunday and
behaved most orthodoxly. She cried in the right place
and was silent after Exorcism, as she should."
To Mr. J. G. Godwin.
" Septr. xvij., 1867.
" If Mr. Valentine writes to you and accepts my offer, I
will pay the Railway expenses of going from Oxford to
I40 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
Whixley and back again. But I very much fear that he
will not be able to get away from his duty to fulfil my
wishes. One chief reason why I wish him to come is that
he is the only man I can obtain who is likely to bestow the
Sacrament on my Child. Every Clergyman in this
Country is accustomed, in order to show his contempt for
Water, the Seed of God, to drain his hand dry of every drop
except the tip of his middle finger from which he allows
about a single drop to fall on the Infant's face. This
usage is so adverse to actual rubric, which commands that
the hand should be filled with as much water as it can
grasp, or in some cases a shell is filled, and the Water is
shed three times in the form of a Cross on the brow of the
little child, dividing the Gospel of the Trinity in three parts
to suit the aspersion by the Water, thus, ' In the name
of the Father (once), and of the Son (twice), and of the
Holy Ghost' (thrice). You may guess how disgusted I am,
knowing that the Baptism depends on this trine bestowal
of the Element chosen to be the Couch or Chariot of the
Trinity, when I see the child robbed by disdainful heresy
of its full sacrament. The Cross also at reception should
be signed thrice, on the brow, breast and loins of the Child.
Oh how I am worried and sickened by the demeanour of
these wretched men, mutilating and despising the visible
Sign of the descent of the Paraclete with Second Birth. If
I could have known that I should be the Father of Children
I should have shrunk from the fearful responsibility."
The Vicar had decided views also about Confirmation.
With reference to the dress of female candidates he writes,
in 1856 — "There is a difference of opinion between myself
and some other of the clergy, and they are upheld too
by Mrs. Phillpotts, the Bishop's wife. These all prefer
Caps and Veils for the confirmed. I recommend the bare
brow."
THE DIRGE' 141
Of the Communion Service he writes to a friend in 1857 —
" You mention the Eucharist. How any Man can dare
break the law expressly laid down in the Prayer Book
which he has sworn to obey, I know not. I say nothing
of the blasphemous disrespect of passing the Paten &
the Chalice round the Rail as though they conveyed a
common meal. The delivery of the Sacrament is personal
to each with a statement, to and for each, and the word thee
fixes it if usage did not. Shall I tell you the reason ?
Their vanity will not allow them to forego that which I
never dared preach in my life — a Sermon in my Master's
Presence, and so they have not time. Let them omit the
superfluous, and nine times out often unmeaning, discourse
on such days, and then there would be time enough to
convey God's Message singly with each to each."
The burial service he also performed very impressively ;
and many of the gravestones in the churchyard bear
epitaphs of his making, in some cases original poems.
One stone is inscribed with his poem ' The Dirge.' "The
first line of these verses," he says, "haunted the memory
and lips of a good and blameless young farmer, who died
in my parish some years ago. It was, as I conceive, a
fragment of some forgotten dirge, of which he could
remember no more. But it was his strong desire that ' the
v.^ords ' should be ' put upon his headstone,' and he wished
me also to write ' some other words, to make it complete.' "
Before the verses is the following inscription : —
" To THE MEMORY OF
Richard Cann,
of Lower Cory in this parish, Yeoman, whose Soul was carried by the
Angels into Paradise on the i6th day of February in the year of the
Church 1842. Aged 31 years.
" The Second Life which he received at the Font he cherished in the
Chancel, insomuch that with the certainty of the One True Faith,
142 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
through the Assurance of the Blessed Sacraments, and in the Safety
of the Ancient and ApostoHc Worship of Christ in this consecrated
Sanctuary of God, he clave steadfastly unto the Lord until he was not,
for God took him."
Another stone in Morwenstow churchyard bears some
lines which have not hitherto found their way into print —
" To THE MEMORY OF
Jane Cann.
She wrought well in the vineyard of the Lord for forty years and
upwards, until the 7th day of the second month in the Year of the Holy
ApostoHc Church 1848, and then her work was wholly done. Still
she being dead yet speaketh. This is her Title that you see, and her
Grave is the Sepulchre of a woman of God.
" Her thoughts were holy and her language sweet,
She dwelt like Mary at her Saviour's feet ;
As Martha with her brother sat she down.
And she like Sarah was her Husband's crown.
Yet must her Mother miss that loving eye.
And in old age for her dear Daughter sigh ;
God wanted her and so she passed away.
The Sun went down while it was yet the day.
Still, though the Earth was fair and life was young,
No sound of murmuring trembled on her tongue ;
But, as that Prophet who the Desert trod.
When the Voice call'd, made haste to meet his God,
So she from Pisgah's height with hopeful eye
Beheld bright Canaan in the distance lie ;
Then bow'd her head in peace with meek accord,
And slumbers here with burial of the Lord."
The touching lines, ' On the Grave of a Child,' are to
be found on a stone near the south wall of the Church
" Those whom God loves die young ;
They see no evil days ;
No falsehood taints their tongue,
No wickedness their ways.
"DEARLY BELOVED CHARLOTTE!" 143
" Baptized, and so made sure
To win their safe abode ;
What could we pray for more ?
They die, and are with God."'
These lines commemorate the son of the Rev. Ezekiel
Athanasius Rouse, a descendant of a former Vicar of
the Parish. Mr. Rouse had a son named after him
Ezekiel. One Good Friday, the story goes, Hawker
had denounced from the pulpit the modern desecration of
that day, which, he said, was a proof that the Gospel was
' perished out of the land.' Ezekiel the younger, though
he listened to his sermon, disregarded its precepts, and in
the afternoon joined in an ungodly game of football. But
the judgment descended, and he came home with a
broken nose ; and this greatly confirmed the Vicar in his
belief that whomsoever he bound on earth should be
bound in heaven.
The Vicar held a daily service, as he used to say, " for
the absent," the congregation consisting of Mrs. Hawker,
on which occasions it is said that he used to open the
prayers with " Dearly beloved Charlotte ! the Scripture
moveth us, etc."
Towards the end of her life Mrs. Hawker's sight became
very weak, and the Vicar would take advantage of this
infirmity to conceal from her any worrying letters, and as
far as possible keep her in ignorance of anxieties that
preyed upon his mind. But she sometimes detected these
pious frauds, and on one such occasion administered an
unexpected rebuke. The daily service was in progress,
and they were reading alternate verses of the psalms.
Suddenly the Vicar was startled by hearing his wife's voice
raised to a loud tone as she read the words "and all false
ways I utterly abhor ! "
The Sunday services were of an original character.
144 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
The Vicar inside the dim chancel was concealed from the
congregation by the screen. He would wander up and
down the chancel, book in hand, and reading now in
English, now in Latin. At certain points in the service
he would prostrate himself on the ground before the altar,
with outstretched arms, in the form of a cross. A little
door in the screen gave access to the pulpit, and the Vicar
had great difficulty in squeezing through. When asked
why he did not enlarge the door, he would say, " Don't
you see that this typifies the camel going through the eye
of the needle ? "
After the sermon he came down the pulpit steps back-
wards, finding that the only possible way of returning
through the door. Strangers preaching at Morwenstow,
who did not know of this device, would find themselves
imprisoned on the stairs, till the Vicar came to their rescue.
" It is the strait and narrow way," he would whisper, " and
few there be that find it."
He used to strew the floor of the church with wormwood.
"I scatter it in the chancel," he writes, "and along the
aisles and in the seats. When bruised by the foot it gives
out its healthy pleasant smell, and that smell is a febrifuge."
Of his choir he writes, in 1861, "Nothing can be plainer
than their singing is. A Bass Viol — Two Flutes — a pitch-
pipe, and about a score of singers who sing the New Ver-
sion of the Psalms. An Organ would be quite out of place
in a simple Country Church like mine."
His illuminations were primitive.
"What a repulsive usage it would seem even to me,"
he writes, " Gas and a chanted Service. The former is
said to result in many a lung and visceral disease. When
my Church is lighted it is with 8 or 10 ends of Candle
stuck about by the Old Sexton on the bench heads."
There was a familiarity about some of the Vicar's pro-
"BLASPHEMING DOG!" 145
ceedings in Church which might have shocked a prim and
starchy London congregation.
When the sexton was ringing the bell for the daily-
morning service, and it was time ibr him to cease, the
Vicar would shout down the Church, " Now, Tom, three
for the Trinity, and one for the Blessed Virgin." On
Sundays the performers on the bass viol, etc., were
stationed at the west end of the church, and the singers
were there also. There was no board for the numbers of
the hymns. The churchwarden's little niece used to walk
up the aisle and hand a list of the hymns to the Vicar
through the screen, and, she says, he invariably handed
back to her a piece of barley sugar. He always kept a
supply in his study for children that came to see him.
It would be quite a mistake, however, to infer from these
homely practices any want of reverence. Hawker strongly
resented any disrespect for sacred things and places.
One day he was showing the church to a stranger, who
had just been taking refreshments at the Vicarage. As
they were leaving the church the visitor put his hat on
before he reached the door. The Vicar, from behind,
promptly knocked it off. Thinking it was done by accident,
the stranger replaced his hat, whereupon the Vicar knocked
it off again.
A certain Church Dignitary had said that the Virgin was
the mother of other children besides Jesus. " Blaspheming
dog!" exclaimed Hawker, when he heard of this ; "he
had better not come here, for I shall not be at home."
The Vicar was not slow to pronounce a malediction,
when he thought it was deserved.
" In the hall of the Vicarage," writes his sister, "a large
board used to hang. Some one passing through asked
Robert what was written on it. He said, 'That is a list
of all my parishioners, divided into two classes—' bcati
K
146 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
sint ' on one side, and ' anathema sint ' on the other. I
always keep it, and mark the changes."
In his private devotions, as an old servant of his expresses
it, " he was a bit High, sartainly. He had a little room
upstairs where he used to pray. Us maids could see him
from another window, with his candles and suchlike, cross-
ing himself in divers ways."
He was no lover of Dissent, although with Dissenters,
in the flesh, he was often on friendly terms. In one of his
notebooks, he writes : —
" Infallibility.
" The Methodists not only hold this of John Wesley but of
every hedge preacher. They teach ' he speaks by the spirit so
cannot err.' A looo popes."
The verses that follow were sent to his friend Mr. Arthur
Kelly. The MS. is undated, but seems to belong to an
early period.
" LATREIA.
" ' These be thy— Gods ! O Israel ! '
" They say — and yet they sadly err —
Though loud and bold their tone —
They say that I'm a Worshipper
Of Shapes of Wood and Stone !
" Alas ! I'm made of sterner Stuff,
I've quite another fault,
I do not worship things enough,
Nor bow down as I ought !
" I've no respect for Calvin's Face,
Nor Whitfield's locks of gray,
John Wesley's Picture hath no Place
Where I kneel down to pray !
PEARLS BEFORE SWINE 147
" No vow from me, nor Praise, nor Prayer,
Saint Bickersteth can claim, —
I am so lost, I never swear
By Mr. Bridges' name !
" There is no ' Blessed ' Man, nor ' Sweet,'
No popular Divine,
Whose graven Image others greet.
Can bend these Hmbs of mine !
" Upright I stand, and at mine Ease,
My simpering Mrs. C. —
I worship Heathen — Images ! !
I do not worship thee."
" A dissenter," writes the Vicar's sister, "once begged
me to ask Robert for his interpretation of certain verses
of St. Paul's. I did so, and his answer was: —
(( (
My Dear Caroline,
" 'Cast not your pearls before swine, lest they turn
again and rend you.' "
In 1854 a dispute arose in the Vestry on the question of
Church Rates, which some Dissenters refused to pay.
The Vicar retaliated in a novel manner.
" When," he writes, "the Blind and Base had led the
Blind and Base into a Morwenstow Ditch, and the Church-
rate of one Penny in the £1 was filched in Vestry by a
Band of Thieves, the last link was severed by which the
wretched Schismatics held claim on consecrated ground."
" After diligent research into the powers of the Vicar still
remanent in me by Law, I found that they were limited to
these : —
" i. At Common Law every Parishioner, or Resident
within the boundary, could claim a burial in consecrated
earth, but the spot, the kind of grave, the appliances of
Mortar and Stone, were optional with mc.
" ij. A Corpse so dying had a right to obtain from a
148 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
Minister vocal Sepulture according to the Rubrical Law of
the Church. But a choice was vested in me by rubric of
leading the Dead either into the Church from the Lych-
gate or at once to its Grave.
" Notice was given by me in Writing that so long as the
usual and meagre rate of Morwenstow was feloniously
intercepted by Vote these powers of option would be
rigidly exercised by me.
"Among the Ringleaders of Riot and the aiders and
abettors of all Rebellion against the Church of His
Baptism was One .
" His Father-in-Law died ! On the morning of Tuesday
a Messenger arrived. The Tale he told was — the death
— the necessity of burial. A thought occurred to me.
What if I afford this Man another opportunity of Repent-
ance ? True, dissenters' eyes are dry, and the nether
Millstone is softer than a Sectary's soul ; still let me try.
The dead man desired to rest in this Churchyard at his
departed sister's side. On the one Hand I must relax my
written and published rule, on the other who knows but
that they may be glad to perform their neglected Duty to
the Church for the dead's sake ? So I wrote thus : —
" ' On condition that the Tenants of pay one
penny in the pound on their rate in discharge of their
Church-rate for the year ending Easter 1855, the payment
to be made to Thomas Cann, Warden, before the ground
is broken, I consent to the erection of a Vault, commonly
called a Walled Grave, in my Churchyard, for the Body of
Mr. , now lying dead at , and I more-
over undertake to inter the said Corpse in the usual way
without demand of any personal Fee or payment to myself
for such grant or service.'
" R. S. Hawker, Vicar of Morwenstow.
"Deer. 5 — 54."
BURIAL AND CHURCH RATES 149
" Reply.
"'The Tenants at will be bound to no conditions.'
" My second Notice ran therefore thus : —
" ' I forbid any Walled Grave to be built in my Church-
yard for the body of Mr. .'
" R. S. Hawker.
" N.B. — The penny Rate would have been about ;^i. I
hear a costly Hearse is hired for burial at Hartland."
Hawker wrote to the landlord of the tenants in ques-
tion : —
" So rigid was and is my vow to fulfil herein my duty to
the Church, that while on the one hand Lord John Thynne,
if he were to visit this parish and to die here, should
receive at my hands honourable Sepulture in the Chancel,
and the full observances of the Church, because of his very
proper notice to the tenant of his Land, and so likewise
should his Steward Mr. Shearm, so on the other hand if
death were to occur to Mr. , he would obtain from me
only a garbled Service and a disrespected grave. . . . You
have copies of the Papers which passed. I beg you will pre-
serve them with this letter for future reference. The Resolve
I have announced will be literally enforced, and I am glad
that the first occasion of proof has been in the case of a
rich rather than a poor person."
In another letter he says : — " My only reply [to a note
he had received] was a verbal one, viz., that the note con-
tained a vile lie and that ' no liar had eternal life abiding
in him.' "
These were painful incidents, but some account of them
is necessary to a true understanding of the Vicar's character.
Storm and calm, sunshine and gloom, alternated in his
mood ; for it would seem as though the spirit of the
" changing sea " had wrought itself into his being. He
150 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
was a good hater, open and above-board in his enmity, not
nourishing a secret grudge, nor speaking behind a man's
back what he would not say to his face. It was this quality
which won the respect of those whom he most denounced,
and moved them to speak well of him after his death.
There were men in the parish quite capable of standing up
to him, and, like him, hitting straight from the shoulder.
Both combatants would thoroughly enjoy the contest, and
be as good friends after as before. The vigorous terms in
which they abused each other were only part of the game,
for the nature of West-countrymen delights in strong
language.
After these events it is not surprising that Dissenters in
the parish hesitated before coming to the Vicar to arrange
for the funerals of deceased relatives. The story goes that
in one case, when the bitterness of the dispute had abated,
he inquired the reason of this reluctance, and the reply
was : —
" Well Sir, we thought you objected to burying
Dissenters."
*' Not at all," said Hawker. " I should be only too glad
to bury you all."
The dispute about the Church Rate had arisen over a
question as to the repair of the Church roof. The Vicar
printed and issued the following appeal : —
''€ccel audit^tmus cam in €pDrata; et invetiitnus
earn in campis Splpae ! ** P$. cxxxij,
" The Roof of Morwenstow Church is covered with Shingle
instead of Slate, i.e., with Tiles of Wood, — the material of the
Ark, and of the Cross, that Death-bed of our Blessed Lord. This
kind of covering was the wise and careful choice of our Fore-
fathers, to baffle the Tempests of ' the Severn Sea.' In the
presence of the Atlantic, and lifted full 400 feet on a Cliff above
THE SHINGLE ROOF 151
the Shore, this Wooden Roof has borne the Brunt of the Seasons
and the Winds, for long generations, at a far less cost of Repair,
and with much slighter injury from annual Storms, than any
slated Church in the Deanery of Trigg Major, or on the North
Coast of Cornwall. Now, the Vicar is proud of this Shingle Roof,
and the hostile farmers have found it out. It has been their
muttered threat and their shameless avowal that ' they would
punish the Vicar by destroying his favourite Roof.' Since the
late decision in the House of Lords, they have laid a crafty and
malignant scheme to cover the Church like a Cattle-Shed or a
barn ; and at the last Vestry, the paltry Penny in the Pound, for
the usual yearly repair, was refused under the insidious cry of ' No
Slate, no Rate.' Every effort to assuage their ferocity has been
in vain. The Church Rate has been lowered during the present
Incumbency from;^32 a year to ;Q\(i. The outlay of the Vicar, for
the future good of his Parish, has been unlimited, and it has
exhausted all his means. He is very, very loath that the noble
Roof should fall a sacrifice, and that to the Schismatic hatred of
mere Rack-Renters, with no interest in the Church, and no
permanence in the Scene. It has occurred to him that an appeal
to his Guests and Friends, for their aidance in this final endeavour
to sustain Morwenstow Church, may not be utterly in vain. A
Part of the Roof of the Southern Aisle has lately been renewed,
and it is proposed to continue the restoration of the rest. Every
Shilling in Oblation, ad honorem Dei, shall be made known, with
the Donor's name ; and will be rigidly accounted for by the
Vicar himself.
" The Vicar leads the List with ^10.
" Morwenstow, Feb. xxviij.
" Year of the Church, 1855."
The Vicar carried his point, and the roof was repaired
with oak ; but the new wood was not so durable as the old,
and before his death it began to let in the rain. It has
since been replaced by slate, except in one place where a
part of the old shingle can still be seen from the tower.
152 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
Some of Hawker's descriptions of these parochial
squabbles are very racy. He had a pretty talent for
personalities.
" The way in which I shall meet this attempt of
theirs," he writes, " is that which I have always found
the only successful one, and that is to scout the very
possibility of their scheme and to defy them. If you give
way even by one supposition — if you reason with them —
they always suppose you to be afraid of them. ... I have
said on such occasions as this : ' The Laws of England
are not made at Cross Town, neither are you Members of
Parliament.'
" I shall not attend their Vestry. I do not gratify
them with those opportunities of throwing Garbage, which
so delight the Great Unspooked. But I am firmly re-
solved never to allow the existing Rate to be altered with-
out the preservation of the same data to a farthing."
Referring to one of his opponents, he writes — " L. and
wife came to the Chancel for the Eucharist. L., when I
said 'Dost thou ! ! ! renounce?^ etc.,' looked like himself."
"Mar. 24, 1856.
" My Waterloo day is over. . . . , when the present-
ment had to be signed — began to mutter—' There's this here
roof— I stopped him. 'This Vestry is for the choice of
Churchwardens. Sign or not as you please — if you refuse
to sign, say so.' He took the paper and signed it. Then,
' I dissolve this Vestry,' and went on with the Service.
N.B. — I choose during divine Service after the Nicene Creed,
to make it a brawl if they chatter. Then they left, looking
very murky. ... At Wellcombe, all smooth. Bartlett, as
before, supported me — And I made H. pay old Stanbury's
Salary by saying plainly, ' Every Clergyman expects his
' This really belongs to the Baptismal Service.
FAITH AND GOOD WORKS 153
pay whether he does his duty or not ' — an argument so
utterly unanswerable, and so well known, that no one
replied."
" More Bankrupt Preachers," he writes again. " Old H.,
who used to swagger about the Fair with his guts full of
heresy and abuse, is prostrate at the feet of the Revd.
L. S. D. . . . Now it turns out that H. the Preacher extolled
Faith because they trusted him with such sums, and he
runs down Good Works because he won't pay twopence.
A man who pays is a d — d Puseyite, and 20/- in the Pound
is rank Popery."
Of a certain Clergyman he writes, " He appeared to me
to be a Protestant devoid of intestines, a most unusual
thing. Is he not some other Man's Backbone?"
Of Wesleyan doctrine he writes : —
"You perceive always that when I am asked the mean-
ing of a text, I search and find what the writer of
that text meant. The mistake is that people often form
a notion of their own and try to make the text mean it.
Whereas, nine times out often, it means something widely
different. It is untruth that our forgiveness is made known
to us sensuously — i.e., by a touch, or stroke, upon the
ganglions — the fibres of the diaphragm — by the access of
the Paraclete thro' the skin. This, stripped of its verbiage,
is the only conception of degraded England of the testimony
wrought into the whole life of a penitent man that God the
Spirit is at work in his Soul. Whereas the truth tells us,
that from the hour that we repent the evidence of our
pardon is interwoven into the total texture of our daily
existence, so that a Man can look back, and see how faith-
fully God the Spirit hath helped him in his work, so that
his deeds of duty done have been half his own and half
God's. While this is the Scriptural doctrine of repentance
unto forgiveness, then came John Wesley and invented a
154 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
spasm or stroke, wherewith he feigned that God would grasp
the fibres of sense for assurance of pardon, as if it were
possible that a man could either see or feel God, the pure
etherial Spirit, in whose midst this round world hangs like
a pearl upon His robe."
The Vicar never troubled to conceal his opinion of
Wesleyanism from the Wesleyans themselves.
A gentleman who used to stay in Morwenstow, and knew
Hawker well, writes : — " His relations with Dissenters in
his parish were very friendly, tho' he was so bluntly out-
spoken for the church.
" One Sunday my brother-in-law, Mr. Tarratt, and I
walked over to the afternoon service at Welcombe, a
hamlet full of old-fashioned Dissenters, many of whom
attended chapel in the morning and church in the afternoon.
In the course of his sermon he made a remark to the
following general effect — to our astonishment, as we sat
looking down from the old-fashioned gallery — 'Everything,'
he said, ' has its own appointed use — and so, dear friends.
Dissent also has its place. Some of you have no doubt
been to Exeter Town — and there on each side of the fine
wide street you've seen a paved gutter, with the water
running down after rain, and carrying off the dirt and
straws. Just in the same way. Dissent is the outlet to carry
away all defilements from the face of Holy Mother Church.'"
Another sermon aimed at the Dissenters is thus de-
scribed by the Vicar himself: —
"Last Sunday," he writes, "the Sermon was on the
Gospel — 'Whosoever is angry with his brother without a
cause is in danger of the Judgment.' Pith — that anger,
with a cause, a virtue, without it a Sin. Proof — Our Lord
meek and gentle when unroused, would not break the
bruised reed nor quench the smoking flax, nevertheless
when a cause for anger came, when miscreants assailed with
"HORSEWHIPPED THE DISSENTERS" 155
their pollution the Church of God, when they committed
Sacrilege^ which signifies an injury to places^ persons, or
things, then Our Redeemer was righteously wroth and horse-
whipped the Dissenters out of the Temple — made his whips
of the cords, &c., and scourged the Scoundrels bodily with
his own hand till they fled howling. 'Whoever would
have thought it ?' said Cann. 'While Mr. Harris keeps on
saying, " Look at our Saviour how forgiving he was, how he
told us when smitten on one cheek to turn the other also."
I shall tell him,' he said, ' when he says so again that Mr.
H. proved from the Scriptures that the Lord horsewhipped
the Dissenters nevertheless.' "
Mr. W. G. Harris, the preacher mentioned in this letter,
was something of a character, and, like Hawker, had a turn
for making verses. The Rev. Mark Guy Pearse, and other
leading Wesleyans, used often to visit him. The friendli-
ness that subsisted between him and the Vicar is
shewn by a pleasant incident mentioned in another of
Hawker's letters : — " One of the largest Farmers in Mor-
wenstow," he writes, "a Wesleyan and a Preacher, has
bought a Machine for cutting Grass (^16). He came over
on Monday, and offered to cut my hay for me gratuitously ;
an offer I was not too proud to accept. He did so, and
then he offered me the use of his hay-turner, an implement
he has had for some time. We worked it, and, by help of
Cann's Waggon and Horses, it was all saved on Thursday
in dry and good condition. Am I not thankful ? No one
knows how grateful I am for every deed of kindness, small
or great. Many were surprised at the Preacher's cutting
my Grass — the first in all the Parish, but I was not, for
he has always shewn great respect and goodwill, although
I never spare heresy or schism ministerially." When
Hawker died, Mr. Harris paid a warm tribute to his
memory, in a letter to a local paper, in which he said : —
156 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
" I was chosen, at his request, upwards of twenty years
since to be churchwarden, though a Wesleyan and local
preacher. . . . For forty years I have known him as one of
my best and dearest friends. He never reproached me for
being a Wesleyan, but I had every encouragement to virtue,
and Wesleyan ministers in the early years of his incum-
bency were always welcome guests." A Wesleyan minister,
the Rev. M. Christophers, writing in The Christian Mis-
cellany, says : —
" I was musing among the grave stones, when I happily fell in
with the Vicar. There was a remarkable charm about his person
and manners. He politely guided me into the venerable sanctuary.
. . . Much had been done to restore the church to its original
consistency. The pulpit invited special attention. All the
panels had been taken out, so that it stood a mere open frame-
work. This was after an antique model, formed, as the Vicar
remarked, on the principle that ' the people ought to see the
Priest's feet.'
. . . "The Vicar told me that in visiting the Well of St. Morwenna
(on the cliff-side), he found the words, ' A friend to thee,' in Greek,
cut with a knife on one of the stones. He discovered that it
had been done by the Methodist Preacher."
The Vicar was not one of those who shirk coming in
contact with people of religious views different from his
own. He associated and corresponded with men of all
shades of opinions. His mischievous humour delighted in
the juxtaposition of incongruities. Once when he had
assembled at his house a party of ministers of various de-
nominations, and some one expressed surprise at such a
gathering, he said, " They are the clean and unclean beasts
feeding together in the Ark."
CHAPTER X
1842-3
Wrecks — The ' Caledonia ' — The ' Phcenix ' — The ' Alonzo.'
" We laid them in their lowly rest,
The strangers of a distant shore:
We smoothed the green turf on their breast,
'Mid baffled ocean's angry roar ! "
For the first five or six years after his arrival at Morwenstow,
Hawker was engrossed in his building operations and the
task of getting his parish into working order. There is no
record of these quiet years. The first events to emerge
after 1835 are the terrible wrecks that took place at
Morwenstow in the years 1842 and 1843.
Those who visit the North Coast of Cornwall in summer
are apt to think only of its natural beauties. But to the
sailor it wears another aspect. As the local saying goes,
" From Padstow Point to Lundy Light,
Is a watery grave, by day and night."
Woe to the vessel cast upon those cruel reefs, in that
tremendous surge ! Wrecks are happily less frequent now
than they were in Hawker's time, owing to the improvement
in coast-lights. But between 1824 and 1874 there were
more than eighty in the neighbourhood of Bude. In 1832
an old man at Poughill wrote, at Hawker's instance, an
157
158 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
account of thirty-seven wrecks between Morwenstow and
St. Gennys since 1756. This quaint manuscript, called
* The Book of Wraks at Bude,' by W. Bray, is still in
existence. One story is typical of Cornish superstition.
" I very well remember," says the writer, " one old
Cholwill of Morwenstow ; he Informed me that night was
a bitter night, of Thunder and Lightening, a storm very
great. About one o'clock a very Great Light apeered in
his Bedroom, and he was much horred, as no person was in
the house besides himself ; at last he spoke and said, ' in
the name of God, whot is the light For ? ' As soon as he
had said this, a man, as it appeered all in white, said, ' you
arise and goe down to duckpool, and you will find a dead
man, be sure bury him.' Old Cholwill arose from his bed
Immediately, and made good speed to Duckpool. The first
thing he put his hand on was a dead corps, which he soon
had interd according as the Gost said to him."
The Vicar was intensely anxious for the safety of vessels
at sea.
" I recollect one night," says an old parishioner, " about
two in the mornin', Mr. Hawker knocked us up at the
farm, and said there was a ship near the shore, firin' signals
of distress. The night was fine, but dark, and the sea calm.
So we all came down, and went out on Hennacliff, and
kindled a fire there. Those on board saw it, and the ship —
a Russian vessel — was saved. They had lost their bearings,
and didn't know where they were. I believe Mr. Hawker
was thanked by the owners, if he didn't receive a present for
saving the ship." ^
The wrecks of the Caledonia^ the Phcenix, and the
Alonzo, are described by Hawker in his ' Remembrances
of a Cornish Vicar.' There are probably few finer
descriptions of a wreck as it appears to those on shore. But
' See letter to Sir T. Acland, p. 230.
WRECK OF THE CALEDONIA 159
in one or two minor details he alters the facts to suit his
artistic purpose. This was quite natural, as he was writing
for a London magazine, without mention of Morwenstow or
his own name, and more than twenty years after the actual
occurrences.
The Caledonia^ of Arbroath, on her homeward voyage to
Scotland, came ashore under Sharp's Nose, " a bluff and
broken headland," as Hawker describes it, "just by the
southern boundary of my own glebe." The sole survivor,
Le Dain, was really found, not by the Vicar, as he states
in ' Footprints,' but by Mr. John Adams, of Stanbury.
He was entertained partly at Stanbury, and partly at the
Vicarage. He gave the following account of his experience,
which Hawker forwarded to the owners of the vessel : —
" I joined the brig in the harbour of Rio Janeiro, where I had
been left by the ship Mary Anne of Jersey, sick with the small-pox
three months before. I found that the Captain and all the crew
were natives of Arbroath, except myself and the cook, who was from
Buenos Ayres, and had joined the ship in London. We sailed
from Rio, bound to Corfu, with a freight of coffee, which we dis-
charged at Corfu, and Syra, and Smyrna, and Constantinople. At
the latter place we took in ballast, and sailed for Odessa, where we
took in a cargo of wheat. We sailed from Odessa for Falmouth.
At Constantinople, on our voyage home, the cook, Thomas Samuel,
went on shore, and in a dispute in which he was engaged with the
keeper of a public house he received a dangerous wound. We
were upwards of five weeks on our voyage from Constantinople to
Falmouth, with fine weather all the way. The cook was ill all that
time. The crew were an orderly crew : they observed the Sabbath
day : the Captain read the Bible in his cabin on Sundays. When
we arrived at Falmouth the cook died. We attended his funeral
in Falmouth church, and the next day we then performed quaran-
tine. On the ist of September we sailed from Falmouth for
Gloucester, with a fair wind. 'We sailed about daybreak. We
made the Land's End about 5 o'clock in the evening of Wednes-
i6o LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
day. We then stood up the Bristol Channel with a fair wind until
about 9 o'clock, when a sudden squall of wind and rain came on,
and all hands were called to shorten sail. The weather continued
foul. All hands were kept on deck, and a good lookout forward
for the Light Houses. About eleven we saw land on the starboard
bow. We tacked ship, but from the violence of the storm we could
make no way to windward. About one o'clock on the Thursday
morning it blew a hurricane. Just at that time we carried away
our square mainsail, our foresail, and our topsail sheets. About
half-past two we saw that danger was very great indeed. The
crew were quite sober. The Captain only served out grog twice
during the night. About half-past two we saw the point of land
on which the vessel afterwards struck. We tried to weather it; we
could not get the ship about. There was nothing said by the crew
one to another except about the ship's work. Just before the
ship struck I was going forwards, and I met David Macdonald going
aft. He took me by the hand and said, ' Where are we ? ' He
was much moved. And then the ship struck. The Captain sent us
to the main rigging. We went. We were there about a quarter
of an hour. No one spoke, except once, when I saw the long
boat was gone, I said to the Captain, ' Sir, our long boat is gone.'
But he made no answer. Soon after the mast went overboard
with the rigging and we in it. A heavy sea poured over us, and I
was washed towards the land. Several seas struck me onwards.
At last I felt a rock. I held on. I looked for my companions :
they were not to be seen. The ship was going to pieces. I then
climbed on to another rock, and then upwards, until I felt some
grass, and then I rested and looked down to the sea for the crew.
But there was no one to be seen. I then climbed higher, feeling
my way. When morning came I found myself on the top of a
very high cliff, but I was very much exhausted, and did not then
think I should live. But by God's great mercy I am alive. I am
a native of Jersey. My Father is a Farmer named Philip le Dain.
" (signed) Edward le Dain.
"dated Sept. 22nd, 1842.
R. S. Hawker.
" Witnesses\ ^ ,t ,,
Charles Mugford.
A SAD PROCESSION i6i
A paragraph in The Arbroath Guide, of 17 Sept. 1842
described the Caledonia as " a splendid brig of 200 tons>
the property of J. S. EspHn, Esq., manufacturer."
" Four of the bodies," it continues, " those of the two
apprentices, Captain Peter and Alex. Kent, were washed on
shore, and have been decently interred in Morwenstow
Churchyard, by direction of the Rev. Mr. Hawker of that
place, who has been indefatigable in his attention on this
sad occasion, and afforded every detail possible to Mr. Esplin.
We learn that no less than five vessels were thrown on
shore on the Cornwall coast the same night."
" The Captain," writes Hawker, " I came upon myself.
Each hand grasped a small pouch or bag. One contained
his pistols ; the other held two little log-reckoners of brass ;
so that his last thoughts were full of duty to his owners and
his ship, and his latest efforts for rescue and defence."
The task of recovering the bodies from the water and
bringing them up the cliffs, was one of great difficulty and
some danger. The writer in The Standard, previously
quoted, says :
" It was on one of these occasions that we first saw Morwenstow.
The sea was still surly and troubled, with wild lights breaking over
it, and torn clouds driving through the sky. Up from the shore,
along a narrow path between jagged rocks and steep banks tufted
with thrift, came the Vicar, wearing cassock and surplice, and
conducting a sad procession, which bore along with it the bodies
of the two seamen flung up the same morning on the sands. The
office used by Mr. Hawker at such times had been arranged by
himself — not without reference to certain peculiarities which, as
he conceived, were features of the primitive Cornish Church, the
same which had had its bishops and its traditions long before the
conference of Augustine with its leaders under the great oak by
the Severn."
The scene at the burial of Le Dain's comrades, and his
L
i62 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
own thanksgiving for his deliverance, are touchingly de-
scribed by Hawker.
He received many enquiries from the bereaved relatives
of the crew in Arbroath, and in reply to one of these he
wrote : —
"Sept. 22, 1842.
"Dear Sir,
"In reply to your mournful letter I write to in-
form you that, although the body of David Macdonald was
much disfigured by injuries received while dashed by the
waves among the rocks, yet it was not so much so but that
Edward le Dain, the Survivor, could recognize it. The
corpse was prepared for Burial by a very motherly woman,
my Sexton's wife. I did not suffer any of the bodies to be
gazed at by the Common People, but they were treated with
as much decency and respect as if they had died at home.
The four found up to this date lie buried side by side in
my Churchyard, and their graves have been dressed, as the
custom is with us, with flowers. The Figure-head of their
ship stands fixed in their midst. I have sent to the owners
by this post le Dain's statement of the voyage and wreck,
to which I refer you for information. You will find much
in it which should be a comfort to you. Le Dain frequently
speaks of David, who with him used to attend on the
Captain in the cabin more than the rest. He constantly
says to me, ' David was a good quiet lad as could be in a
ship.' I think the crew perished about half-past three on
the morning of the 8th of September. In conclusion, I hope
that you will patiently bear your Heavenly Father's will.
God took them — the day of their death was God's time. He
is too good to have taken them when he did if there would
have been a fitter Day. We are in His hands, and by our-
selves do nothing. I preached the funeral sermon of the
Crew from Isaiah 33rd Chapter, the 21st, 22nd, 23rd verses.
THE SOLE SURVIVOR 163
The Congregation wept many tears for the Dead. May
King David's consolation be yours. He said, ' I shall go
to him, but he will not return to me.' God comfort you
and yours,
" I am yours, dear Sir, sincerely,
" R. S. Hawker."
The text of the sermon was chosen from a tragic cir-
cumstance connected with another wreck mentioned by
Hawker in his ' Remembrances.'
The figurehead of the Caledonia, which may still be
seen in Morwenstow Churchyard, is the subject of Hawker's
memorial verses on this sad occasion. Several inverted
boats, cast up at different times, formerly lay upon the
graves of other shipwrecked sailors. They typified to
Hawker's mind the safety of the Ark, " the Ark of Christ's
Church," so he was fond of saying. These boats have long
since rotted away.
Le Dain stayed six weeks at Morwenstow, and was then
enabled to return to his home in Jersey. A few years
later he brought his bride to see the place of his disaster
and wonderful escape. Whenever the Vicar wished to buy
a Jersey cow, Le Dain and his family ransacked the island
to find " the sleekest, loveliest, best of that beautiful breed."
In a letter to the Vicar written twenty-five years after the
wreck Mrs. Le Dain says : —
" Edward Robert Hawker [her son] bears the name of
the kind good benefactor of his dear father that we shall
never forget as long as we live. It was only last week I was
relating to a friend the miraculous preservation and the
kind hospitality we received from you : may the blessing of
God ever reward you for your kind hospitality towards
the distressed."
In the following year, 1843, the schooner Phoenix, of St.
i64 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
Ives, foundered off Morwenstow. Hawker immediately
communicated with that port, and the next day there
arrived at the Vicarage a sailor, whose brother was one of
the drowned crew. Day after day they sought for the body
in vain. At last at low water, "just visible from under-
neath a mighty fragment of rock, was seen the ankle of a
man and a foot still wearing a shoe."
" We would direct attention," says the Royal Cornwall
Gazette of that date, " to the exertions of the Rev. R. S.
Hawker, to extricate the body of a shipwrecked sailor,
whose head had been forced between the rocks. This good
clergyman thought his time, his anxious superintendence,
and his money, well bestowed, in procuring at his own
expense a number of men, and fixing a powerful crane,
which had to be conveyed from a distance, to heave the
superincumbent mass of rock, and extricate the body entire."
A stirring incident occurred at the final recovery of the
body. It was dark, and the party of bearers, with the
Vicar at their head, were making their way slowly up the
cliff, by the light of torches and lanterns, when suddenly
there arose from the sea three hearty British cheers. A
vessel had neared the shore, and the crew, discovering by
night-glasses what was taking place, had manned their
yards, as the Vicar writes, " to greet the fulfilment of duty
to a brother mariner's remains."
The Alonzo of Stockton was wrecked on Oct. 25th, 1843.
Hawker watched the vessel drifting past his cliffs, and saw
a boat put off from her side. Eventually the boat was
washed ashore empty, and the ship, with no one on
board, grounded on the sand further down the coast. The
Western Luminary^ of 21st Novr. 1843, said : —
"The friends of these unfortunate seamen will derive some
consolation from knowing that their remains have received the last
THE HUT 165
tribute of respect and sympathy. Only one body is now missing.
The conduct of the inhabitants of Morwenstow has been beyond all
praise. They well seconded the efforts, and gave effect to the
wishes of their excellent Vicar, whose talents and virtues are
honoured far beyond the boundaries of Cornwall. Conduct like
this will soon redeem their county from whatever stigma the mis-
conduct or slanders of past times may have attached to its name.
Fifteen shipwrecked sailors have been buried in the churchyard
of Morwenstow, in little more than thirteen months ; and it
ought to be noticed that, unknown strangers as most of them
were, receiving their last resting-place from the charity of the in-
habitants, they have not been piled one upon another in a com-
mon pit, but are buried side by side, each in his own grave."
A pathetic story is connected with the wreck of the
Alonzo; a story, as Hawker tells it, "of fond and faithful
love, of severed and broken hearts, of disappointed hope, of
a vacant chair and a hushed voice in a far-away Danish
home."
Out of the timbers cast ashore from these wrecks
Hawker built the little cabin in the face of the cliffs which is
known as " The Hut." The door is in two hatches ; so
that a person inside can close the lower hatch, as a pro-
tection from the weather, while from the upper he looks out
on a magnificent prospect of shore and sky and sea. If
you sit at the back of the hut, with both hatches open, you
see nothing but a few feet of earth, apparently the edge of
a precipice, and just over the edge the points of dark and
sinister rocks rising amid a swirl of foam hundreds of feet
below. The ceaseless thunder of the breakers echoes in
your ears ; those lions of the deep, which, " roaring after their
prey, do seek their meat from God." The lurking presence
of sunken reefs, their tops visible only at low tide, is re-
vealed by patches of a duller hue on the surrounding
water. There they lie, like the horns of some monstrous
i66 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
bull, ready to rip open the side of any hapless vessel that
comes within their reach. From such a height are you
looking down upon the sea, that you seem to be gazing at
a great wall of water. In the midway space between,
white-winged gulls float calmly to and fro, uttering their
plaintive call.
Stand up, and the apparent precipice resolves itself into
a slope of turfy mounds and boulders, overgrown with
bracken and furze, and gay with marguerites and purple
fox -glove. To the right, a mighty slab of gray rock slants
downward to the surf, its jagged edge clearly defined
against the blue. Step outside the hut, and descend
" By zigzag paths, and juts of pointed rock."
A little further down the cliffside, and a grand vista of
coast and promontory meets your gaze. Northward lies
the tumbled mass of Vicarage rocks, and beyond and above
them frowns the brow of Hennacliff, king of Cornish head-
lands. Southward, the grass-clad shape of Sharp's Nose,
or, as Hawker calls it in ' The Smuggler's Song,' " Shark's
Nose Head," runs out, a cliff beyond the cliffs, like the door-
step of Polyphemus, into the courtyard of the sea. Over
the ridge of Sharp's Nose the bay stretches, bounded by a
long line of dwindling headlands, and on it ply the little
coasters whose bourn is the perilous haven of Bude.
The hut was a favourite resort of Hawker's.
" We walk out every evening," he writes to a friend, " to
the cliff above the sea — and there we often sit, while I read
the letters and papers that have arrived in the bag, which
reaches us between four and five in the afternoon. There,
with the Atlantic rolling beneath, the descending sun above
the sea, and with no Land between us — to the West — and the
coast of Labrador, have many of your letters been read and
commented on in the Twilight hour. The currents set so
i r.
- C
'SWEET AND TWENTY' 167
directly across from America, that once, in 1843, a huge
pine trunk of a tree floated ashore in Morwenstow, with the
branches rudely lopped off, coated with Barnacles and sea-
weed, just as it had floated in a raft down some American
river."
A reminiscence of Hawker in his hut was contributed to
Notes and Queries in 1876, by Frances Collins, wife of
Mortimer Collins the novelist, who in his * Sweet and
Twenty ' sketched the Vicar of Morwenstow under the
character of Canon Tremaine.
" In connection with Mr. Hawker's theory of demons,"
writes Mrs. Collins, " I may observe that, being in a cavern
which he had cut in the rock at Morwenstow, about three
hundred feet above the sea, he pointed gravely to the bay
below, and assured me he had seen mermaids there."
Here also, like an eagle in his lonely eyrie. Hawker would
sit alone and muse, while his fancy took the wings of the
bird, and visited strange haunts invisible to human ken.
Here he drank in the spirit of the sea, which breathes in all
his verse ; and here, looking across to the headlands of the
distant coast, he conceived the majestic close of his great
poem : —
" There stood Dundagel, throned, and the great sea
Lay, a strong vassal at his master's gate,
And, hke a drunken giant, sobb'd in sleep."
CHAPTER XI
1 843-1 848
Lawsuit with Sir John Buller — Harvest Thanksgivings —
Rural Synods — Offertory — Controversial Letters —
" The Field of Rephidim " — The Priest of Baldhu.
"Here, where the pulses of the ocean bound
Whole centuries away, while one meek cell,
Built by the fathers o'er a lonely well,
Still breathes the Baptist's sweet remembrance round."
" The well of St John in the wilderness," says Hawker,
" stands and flows softly in the eastern boundary of
Morwenstow Glebe. In the old Latin Endowment, [made
by Bishop Thomas de Byttone in 1296], still preserved in
the Archives of Exeter, the church land is said to extend
eastward, ad quendam fontevi Johannis. Water where-
withal to fill the font for baptism is always drawn from this
well by the Sacristan in pitchers set apart for this purpose.
" The well and the ground whereon it stands having been
unlawfully claimed by Sir J. Y. Buller in the year 1843, the
Right of the Church was sustained by the present Vicar,
and after a lawsuit which lasted two whole days at the
Assizes held at Bodmin, wherein all that wealth and rank
and power could accomplish were brought to bear against
the Church, a triumphant verdict in the Vicar's favour was
returned with costs. It is said that Sir John paid £i'no
for costs on both sides."
168
SIR OR SAINT JOHN? 169
Probably the Vicar pleaded in person, but he did not put
his trust entirely in human judges. He believed in the
practical efficacy of prayer, and the form which he used on
this occasion he had printed on a quarto leaflet, from which
it is here copied.
"A Secret Prayer.
" Offered up at the Altar of Morwenstow Church thrice every day
in Lent (1843) until March 27th.
" All-mighty and Most Merciful God ! The Protector of all that
trust in Thee ! We humbly beseech Thee that thou wouldest be
pleased to stretch forth Thy Right Hand to Rescue and defend
the possessions of this Thy Sanctuary from the Envy and Violence
of wicked and covetous Men ! Let not any Adversary despoil
thine Inheritance, neither suffer Thou The Evil Man to approach
the Waters that flow softly for thy Blessed Baptism from the well
of Thy Servant Saint John.
" And, O Mighty Lord, even as Thou didst avenge the cause of
Naboth The Jezreelite upon angry Ahab and Jezebel his wife ;
and as Thou didst strengthen the hands of Thy Blessed Apostle
Saint Peter, insomuch that Ananias and Sapphira could not escape
just Judgment when They sought to keep back a part of the
Possession from Thy Church ; even so now, O Lord God, Shield
and Succour The Heritage of This Thy Holy Shrine ! Shew some
Token upon us for Good, that they who see it may say, This hath
God done.
• ~:" Be Thou our hope and our Fortress, O Lord, our Castle and
Deliverer as in the Days of Old, such as our Fathers have told us !
Shew forth Thy Strength unto This Generation, and Thy Power
unto them that are yet for to come ! So shall we daily perform
our Vows, Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen ! "
At the trial, when the counsel for the other side referred
to the well as Sir John's well, Hawker emphatically called
it Saint John's well. An important point was made of the
position of a certain tree, to which people tied their horses,
I/O LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
and which marked a right of way. The evidence was
conflicting. Some witnesses swore it was there : others
swore it was not. The judge therefore suspended the case,
and sent off two jurors to examine the spot and bring
another witness. It is still related in Morwenstow how a
post-chaise dashed up to the poor-house at Crosstown, to
fetch old Betty Bryant. It was getting dark, and Betty
had retired to rest. " So they waked her up from her
sleep, in a mighty haste, and some on 'em went to dress her,
and put her stockings on inside out, and tukt her aff to
Bodman to bear witness, because her cud remember such a
terr'ble long time ago."
Betty's evidence would seem to have turned the scale,
for, it is said, " 'Twas all over in ten minutes, and Parson
Hawker rid back from Bodman on his mare Mermaid, forty
miles in tu hours and a half, an' there was great doin's in
Morwenstow, eatin' and drinkin', bells ringin', an' flags
flyin', an' the choir singed up top of the tower ; but old
Nicky, that swore false about the tree, afterwards lost the
sight of one eye, and Parson said 'twas the Lord's judgment
upon him. So, you see, the Parson got his well, though the
steward used to say that his master cared no more for a
thousand pounds than Mas'r Hawker did for a cup o' tay."
In a letter dated 1857, with reference to an election.
Hawker says : — . . . . " The Buller who vanquished Sir
Stafford is not Sir John, my antagonist, but a Mr. Buller
of Downes, near Exeter. I hope Sir John has quite for-
given me. He told the Bishop that I had never used a
single harsh word or done any crafty thing in the lawsuit,
and that he could not blame me for defending the rights of
the Church. Lady Buller told Mr. Wightwick of Plymouth,
that in her opinion Sir John had acted very cruelly in
harassing the Vicar of Morwenstow, as in this action of
Law."
HARVEST FESTIVALS 171
In the same year the Vicar issued an eloquent exhortation
to his flock with reference to Harvest thanksgiving, a festival
which he was one of the first English clergymen to revive.
"To THE Parishioners of Morwenstow.
" When the sacred Psalmist inquired what he should
render unto the Lord for all the benefits that He had done
unto him, he made answer to himself, and said : ' I will
receive the cup of salvation, and call upon the name of the
Lord.' Brethren, God has been very merciful to us this
year also. He hath filled our garners with increase, and
satisfied our poor with bread. He hath opened His hand,
and filled all things living with plenteousness. Let us offer a
sacrifice of thanksgiving among such as keep Holy Day.
Let us gather together in the chancel of our church on the
first Sunday of the next month, and there receive, in the
bread of the new corn, that blessed sacrament which
was ordained to strengthen and refresh our souls. As it is
written, * He rained down manna also upon them for to eat,
and gave them food from heaven.' And again, ' In the
hand of the Lord there is a cup, and the wine is red.'
Furthermore, let us remember that, as a multitude of
grains of wheat are mingled into one loaf, so we, being
many, are intended to be joined together into one, in
that holy sacrament of the Church of Jesus Christ.
Brethren, on the first morning of October call to mind the
word, that wheresoever the body is, thither will the eagles
be gathered together. ' Let the people praise thee, O God,
yea, let all the people praise thee. Then shall the earth
bring forth her increase, and God, even our own God, shall
give us His blessing. God shall bless us, and all the ends
of the earth shall fear Him,'
" The Vicar.
"The Vicarage, Morwenstow. Sept. 13, 1843."
1/2 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
Hawker also led the way in reviving Rural Synods/ In
1844 he published a booklet describing his action in the
matter, of which in 1871 he writes to a friend, "I do very
much wish that you could get for me a copy of my * Rural
Synods.' I want in these days of fuss to recall the fact
that the first Ruridecanal Synod held in England was
mine." A few extracts from this booklet may be given.
The Citation.
"Reverend Sir,
"In obedience to the desire of many of the clergy,
and with the full sanction of our Right Reverend Father in
God the Lord Bishop of this Diocese, I propose, in these
anxious days of the Ecclesiate, to restore the ancient usage of
Rural Synods in the Deanery of Trigg-Major. I accordingly
convene you to appear, in your surplice, in my church of Mor-
wenstow, on the fifth day of March next ensuing, at Eleven
o'clock in the Forenoon, then and there, after Divine Service,
to deliberate with your Brethren in Chapter assembled.
" I remain,
" Reverend Sir,
" Your faithful Servant,
" R. S. H.
" The Dean Rural.
"February 1844."
The clergy walked in procession to the Church, where
Hawker, as Rural Dean, delivered an address. In regard
to the surplice question he said : —
" There is no sacred association — no remembrance of our
Lord or the Apostles — no imagery of the children of light
* Hawker was also the first to suggest Diocesan Synods to the Bishop of
Exeter, as the best way of meeting the difficulties arising from the Gorham
Judgment. (Vide Dr. Lee's 'Memorials,' p. 74.)
JOHN KEBLE 173
linked with the dark vesture of the gown; whereas, the
twelve are conceived to have established whiteness of apparel
for the ministry, in memorial of that mystic vision of the
future glory of the Church which was witnessed upon Mount
Tabor, when their Master was transfigured before them, in-
somuch that His very garments partook of that etherial
change; and as three of the Evangelists, not without
meaning, have been careful to record, * His raiment became
shining, exceeding white as snow, such as no fuller of the
earth could whiten.' Other authorities, indeed, have held
that the choice of the Apostles herein was suggested by the
appearance of those young men in white garments which
stood before them at the resurrection and ascension of their
Lord, and who thus disclosed to the apostolic eyes the
raiment that is worn in the liturgies of heaven."
Hawker was in strong opposition to the Poor Law of
1 834 and its subsequent developments. He hated the work-
house system, which carried off poor old people from the
parish to die in a strange place, away from their friends and
the familiar consolations of their religion. He expressed
his feelings on this subject in his poem ' The Poor Man and
His Parish Church ' —
" And when they vaunt that in those walls
They have their worship-day,
Where the stern signal coldly calls
The prisoned poor to pray, —
I think upon that ancient home
Beside the churchyard wall,
Where roses round the porch would roam,
And gentle jasmines fall."
In a copy of ' Cornish Ballads ' he wrote against this
poem, " John Keble said to me, * That Ballad quite haunts
me,' when he was visiting Morwenstow." It is not known
when this visit took place.
174 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
Hawker thought that the poor should have cottages of
their own, and that it was the duty of their fellow-
parishioners to provide for them when past work. He
accordingly instituted a weekly offertory; and in this, too, he
was a pioneer.
In the autumn of 1844 there was a newspaper controversy
on the subject of the offertory, Dr, Lee says —
" Mr. Hawker, who had openly defended the principle of
the offertory, and this from the plain and unambiguous
directions of the Book of Common Prayer, was singled out
by name for attack in The Times newspaper."
Hawker's reply was refused admission to The Times,
whereupon he addressed the proprietor, Mr. John Walter, in
an open letter —
" Sir,
" I regret to discover that you have permitted
yourself to invade the tranquillity of my parish, and to
endeavour to interrupt the harmony between myself and
my parishioners, in a letter which I have just read in a
recent number of The Times. You have done so by a
garbled copy of a statement which appeared in the English
Churchman, of the reception and disposal of the offertory
alms in the parish church of Morwenstow,
" I say ' garbled,' because, while you have adduced just
so much of the document as suited your purpose, you have
suppressed such parts of it as might have tended to alleviate
the hostility which many persons entertain to this part of
the service of the Church,
" With reference to our choice, as the recipients of Church
money, of labourers whose * wages are seven shillings a
week,' and ' who have a wife and four children to maintain
thereon,' you say, ' Here is an excuse for the employer to
give deficient wages ! '
LETTER TO JOHN WALTER 175
"In reply to this, I beg to inform you that the wages in
this neighbourhood never fluctuate : they have continued at
this fixed amount during the ten years of my incumbency. , . .
Your argument, as apphed to my parishioners, is this :
Because they have scanty wages in that county, therefore
they should have no alms ; because these labourers of
Morwenstow are restricted by the law from any relief from
the rate, therefore they shall have no charity from the
Church ; because they have little, therefore they shall have
no more. You insinuate that I, a Christian minister, think
eight shillings a week sufficient for six persons during a
winter's week, as though I were desirous to limit the re-
sources of my poor parishioners to that sum. May God
forgive you your miserable supposition ! I have all my
life sincerely, and not to serve any party purpose, been an
advocate of the cause of the poor. I, for many long years,
have honestly, and not to promote political ends, denounced
the unholy and cruel enactments of the New Poor
Law. . . .
" Let me now proceed to correct some transcendent mis-
conceptions of yourself and others as to the nature and
intent of the offertory in church. The ancient and modern
division of all religious life was, and is, threefold — into
devotion, self-denial, and alms. No sacred practice, no
Christian service, was or is complete without the union of
these three. They were all alike and equally enjoined by
the Saviour of man. The collection of alms was therefore
incorporated in the Book of Common Prayer. But it was
never held to be established among the services of the
Church for the benefit of the poor alone ; it was to enable
the rich to enjoy the blessedness of almsgiving for their
Redeemer's sake ; it was to afford to every giver fixed and
solemn opportunity to fulfil the remembrance, that whatso-
ever they did to the poor they did unto Him, and that the
1/6 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
least of such their kindness would not be forgotten^at the
last day. ' Let us wash,' they said, ' our Saviour's feet by
alms.' . . . But this practice of alms, whereunto the
heavenly Head of the Church annexed a specific reward —
this necessity, we are told, is become obsolete. A Christian
duty become, by desuetude, obsolete ! As well might a man
infer that any other religious excellence ceased to be
obligatory because it had been disused. The virtue of
humility, for example, which has been so long in abeyance
among certain of the laity, shall no longer, therefore, be a
Christian grace ! The blessing on the meek shall cease in
1844 ! . . . Voluntary kindness and alms have been rendered
unnecessary by the compulsory payments enacted by the
New Poor Law ! As though the twenty-fifth chapter of St.
Matthew had been repealed by Sir James Graham ! As if
one of the three conditions of our Christian covenant was
to expire during the administration of Sir Robert
Peel! . . .
" And now, sir, I conclude with one or two parting admo-
nitions to yourself You are, I am told, an elderly man, fast
approaching the end of all things, and, ere many years have
passed, about to stand a separated soul among the awful
mysteries of the spiritual world. I counsel you to beware
lest the remembrance of these attempts to diminish the
pence of the poor, and to impede the charitable duties of
the rich, should assuage your happiness in that abode where
the strifes and the triumphs of controversy are unknown,
* Because thou hast done this thing, and because thou hadst
no pity.' And lastly, I advise you not again to assail our
rural parishes with such publications, and to harass and
unsettle the minds of our faithful people. We, the Cornish
clergy, are a humble and undistinguished race ; but we are
apt, when unjustly assailed, to defend ourselves in straight-
forward language, and to utter plain admonitions, such as,
LETTER FROM BISHOP PHILLPOTTS 177
on this occasion, I have thought it my duty to address to
yourself; and I remain your obedient servant,
" R. S. Hawker.
"Nov. 27, 1844."
Hawker received the following letter from Dr. Phillpotts,
Bishop of Exeter : —
" Bishopstowe. 18 Deer. 1844.
" My Dear Sir,
" I thank you heartily for the pleasure I have had
in reading your excellent letter to Mr. Walter. If he has
any sense of shame, he ought to feel deeply the exposure.
" I have a strong and steady resistance to overcome. I
may personally be defeated, and it may be good for the
Church and for me as a chastisement that / be defeated.
But I humbly rely on God's mercy that he will not make
me to be an instrument of inflicting evil on his Church.
" If he does, I am, I hope, prepared for the blow, for it
will be an infliction from the Father of mercy and God of
all comfort.
" But I shall (in humble reliance on His grace) contend
zealously for the truth. Results and consequences and
events are not ours — nor even in our hands.
" Yrs. sincerely,
" H. Exeter."
The Vicar of Morwenstow was evidently in a pugnacious
mood at this period. The Churchwarden of Charles Church,
Plymouth, had addressed an Evangelical Pamphlet to the
Churchwarden of Morwenstow. But if he expected
approval from the grandson of Dr. Hawker he was dis-
appointed, for this is the reply he got : —
1/8 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
" Morwenstow, Cornwall. Dec. 30, 1844.
" Sir,
" My Churchwarden has placed in my hands to-
day a printed paper, which contains certain Resolutions
passed in the Church of Saint Charles at Plymouth, and at
which it appears that you had the Misfortune to preside.
The Placard bears your Signature, and I shall therefore
hold you responsible for its transmission and contents. My
Warden has expressed himself very properly and indign-
antly at the insulting supposition that he could be made
the tool of a miserable attempt to introduce your paltry
Spite against the Bishop into a Parish with which, I thank
God, you have no concern, and in which I do not think
there is one man who participates in your ignorance, or
would be partaker of your Sin. But, in order that you may
spare yourself future and superfluous trouble, I beg to ac-
quaint you that every measure enjoined by our good and
faithful Bishop, of whom the Diocese is not worthy, has been
already in full usage in this Parish for a very long time.
The Alms at the Offertory, in particular, have been long felt
by Rich and Poor, to be a very Blessed Instrument in the
Hands of the Church of Jesus Christ. And now. Sir, since
you have compelled me by your intrusiveness to notice you,
I shall proceed to make one or two remarks on the unutter-
able ignorance displayed by yourself and others in your
recent proceedings, and on the awful Nature of your Sin.
" i. You and your Party are pleased to object to Sermons
in Surplices as a token of a tendency to Rome ! Now, the
Romanist Minister invariably preaches in a Vesture of
Black ; and of this you may certify yourself by a visit to
the Romish Chapel near your own place of abode.
"ii. Again, with that flippancy which is the invariable com-
panion of shallowness, you pronounce the Offertory as a
thing of Popish Ordinance also, whereas in the Churches
A CHURCHWARDEN ANNIHILATED 179
of Rome there is no such Collection of Alms during Divine
Services at all.
"iii. You proceed to denominate the other usages de-
manded by the Bishop under the Authority of the Book of
Common Prayer as Innovations ! Are you aware that the
Prayer Book in its present form is three Hundred years
old ? Were you never informed that there are many, many
Churches in England wherein every jot and tittle of the
Rubrics have been carried out without intermission even to
the present day ? Do you not understand that if many of
us the Clergy have been guilty of a long dereliction of
rubrical duty during many years, we still have a right to
repent ? Shall we continue in Sin that Grace may abound ?
God forbid ! Again, did you ever read The Act of Uni-
formity (13 and 14 of Car. 2nd E. 4) ? If not, pray borrow
and study it, and you will discover yourself to be not only
grossly ignorant of the Ordinances of the Church but also
of the Law of the Land. You will find by that Statute
that every Rubric of the Book of Common Prayer is a
Clause in an Act of Parliament, which binds not only the
Clergy but also all Lay-Members of the Church. I pass on
to consider your Sin. You convened and you held your
Meeting in Church ! You made a Holy Sanctuary of
Christian Worship the scene of your Rebellion against your
Bishop and your God ! The solemn echoes of that Blessed
Place were polluted by the loathsome language of human
and unlawful Strife. The Sin of Sacrilege is defined by the
Canonists to be anything which shall diminish the Holiness
of, or make common. Sacred Places, Persons, or things.
Moreover, You ! presided over this Conspiracy of Strife !
You ! a Warden of the Church, having upon your soul
a solemn declaration tantamount to any oath, that you
would perform faithfully the office of Churchwarden, in the
Spirit if not the letter of the Words, ' So help }"ou God ! '
i8o LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
Among your canonical duties you are enjoined to provide
a Surplice for the Minister wherein to perform the whole of
Divine Service ; to receive the Alms for the Poor during
the Offertory, and to ' diligently see that all the Parishioners
duly resort to their Church upon all Sundays and Holy
Days.' How you reconcile this last branch of your duty
with your Signature to a printed Paper in which you exhort
them to absent themselves from Church, I leave to your
own Soul and God and the Last Day. Meanwhile, the
Prophet Zachariah will instruct you that you should ' let
none of you imagine evil in your hearts against your Neigh-
bour, and love no false oath, for all these are things that I
hate, saith the Lord.' Your Resolution of thanks to certain
of the Cathedral-Chapter, said to be favourable to your
Schism, has caused me considerable pain ; by no means,
however, on account of yourselves, or from any sense of the
Value of your approbation, but, on the contrary, because I
feel personal Sorrow and professional Shame, that among
the dignitaries of this Diocese, to whom we, the inferior
Clergy, should look for example and guidance, there should
be found any contented to incur the deep humiliation of
your Praise. And now I tender you my Counsel for the
good of your own Soul. I have been taught to have ' com-
passion on the ignorant and on them that are out of the
way.' I forgive therefore your Interference in my Parish
— it was futile — and I exhort you to ' enter into your
Chamber, and shut to the door,' and beseech God to forgive
you also. Repent. Do your duty in that Station of life
to which it hath pleased God to call you, and run no
Spiritual risk beyond it. Study your Bible. Read your
Book of Common Prayer, and use it, meekly, humbly, and
in the Spirit of a Christian Man. ' Render to all their dues,
tribute to whom tribute is due, custom to whom custom,
fear to whom fear, honour to whom honour' Reverence
ANOTHER POLEMICAL LETTER i8i
the Church, and you will draw a calmer breath when you
come to die. No weapon that is formed against Her shall
prosper. Seek at Sacred Sources Religious Truth : believe
me, it is not to be gathered from the Barrack or the Quarter
Deck, the Mart or the Store, and
" I remain,
" Your faithful Counsellor,
" R. S. Hawker."
A similar polemic, written by the Vicar four days later,
was published in a local paper.
To C. M. Phillips, Esq., Torquay.
"Sir,
"I have just read with feelings of deep and sincere disgust,
the Report of a Meeting at Torquay on the 26th ult., in the proceed-
ings of which you took, I perceive, a mournfully conspicuous part.
Among other erroneous statements there is one topic in your
speech which I shall select as the theme of a few straightforward
remarks, and it is, your repugnance to the practice of a weekly
Offertory in Church.
" Now I have always understood that the Principle of an Evil or a
good Work was identically the same, whether The Action of either
was carried out on one occasion only, or at several successive
times. The baseness of slander, for example, is of equal atrocity,
whether the calumny be divulged merely on one day, or repeated
throughout a long period of time. The beauty of compassion
again, is of a similar loveliness, whether the opportunity of its
exercise be obtained during a whole month or restricted within the
limits of a single week. In like manner the Principle of the
Offertory Alms cannot vary, according to the frequency of its
practice. That which is right on the first Sunday of the month
cannot be wrong on the other three. Now, you profess yourself a
member of the Anglican Church ; as such you must, however
unworthily, have been a Communicant, once in a quarter of a year,
i82 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
it may be, or once a month . You then sanctioned, by your presence, the
Offertory Service ; you gave, if reluctantly, your Alms ; you heard
the sentences read ; you saw the oblation laid upon God's Altar,
and delivered up to the distribution of the Clergyman and
Wardens of the Church. How is it that these stings of conscience
never wounded you before? Could the usage which had its
quarterly, or its monthly justification, become a weekly crime ?
Can repetition render a righteous action an unholy deed ? Is the
frequency with which virtue is exercised to diminish its excellence
among Christian men ? ' The heart of man is deceitful above
all things and desperately wicked, who can know it ? '
"Theplain truth is, Sir, that all this hostility derives its origin from
certain sinful propensities which inhabit the recesses of the human
mind. The still small voice of the Chancel is not the tinkling
cymbal of the Giver's Praise. There is no proclamation of the
gift paraded in vain-glorious type and placarded on the Sanctuary
Wall. The left hands of the multitude know not what your
right hand doeth. Indeed, nobody beholds or hears it but God.
Again, I do not shrink from the declaration of, at least my own
belief, that ' Worldliness and Selfishness ' are collateral sources
of resistance to this service of the Church. The language of its
adversaries, being interpreted, is of this kind : The Church may be
welcome to her shilling once a quarter, or even once a month,
but a shilling every week ! O, monstrous innovation ! O, costly
worship ! and (unaware that the Romish Churches have no Offertory
Service at all) O, manifest approach to the awful heresies of
Rome !
"Yes, I am fully persuaded that all the hatred to this Christian duty
flows from some base or bold, some sordid or selfish passion of
the human mind. The Bishop, in your personal interview with
him, with an excess of courtesy and compassion acquitted your-
self and your party of selfish motives in your strife ; I do not. I
shall never hesitate to strip the fallacy of its skin, and expose
it to the contempt of all men ; and if you ask wherefore I, a lowly
village minister, have come forward to attack your schism, I
answer, it is because you first attacked me, and that by your public
and repeated insults to that priesthood, and that church, to which,
VISITATION SERMON 183
especially in these their days of Persecution, I deem it an
inestimable blessing to belong. I scorn to take shelter beneath
an anonymous designation, and therefore I subscribe myself
"Yours obediently,"
" R. S. Hawker,
" Vicar of Morwenstow, Cornwall.
"January 3, 1845."
In the same year Hawker was selected to preach at the
Bishop's Visitation at Launceston. He accordingly wrote
a sermon, afterwards published as ' The Field of Rephidim.^
But a prefatory note says — " After this Sermon was written,
and before the day appointed for its delivery, My Father ^
died. The Bishop, therefore, suffered Mr. Harper ^ to read it
in my stead." The sermon was delivered in the Parish
Church of St. Mary Magdalene, Launceston, on 27 June
1845.
Hawker took for his text Exodus xvii. 11 and 12, and
called upon the clergy and the laity to support their Bishop,
as Aaron and Hur stayed up the hands of Moses. The
sermon contains an emphatic avowal of Hawker's hostility
to Rome at this period.^
" So is it a function likewise of the Chief Shepherds to
defend the flock from the secret or open ravages of heresy
and Schism : more especially in England and in these our
troublous times, it behoves them to watch and ward against
all attempted return to the old innovation by the See and
Bishop of Rome. For the transit of our Apostolic lineage
through Romish times in England is like the temporary
' See pages 3, 38 and 447.
2 The Rev. T. N. Harper, then Curate of Stratton. He afterwards
became a Jesuit.
3 Mr. Baring-Gould, however, commits an anachronism in using the
passage as the peroration of his book, purporting to convey Hawker's opinion
in 1875.
i84 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
passage of a well known foreign river through one circum-
fluent lake ; wherein, although the waters intermingle a
little as they glide, yet the course of the mighty Rhone is
visible throughout, in distinct and unbroken existence ! So
it is with us who have inherited the genealogy of the
Apostles in these lands. We came from British fountains,
we flowed in Saxon channels, we glided through Romish
waters — but we were not, and are not, we will not be of
Rome ; for we will preserve, God willing, the unconquered
courses of our own ancestral stream."
Another passage contains an allusion to Bishop Tre-
lawny : —
" Can we ever forget that day of glory in our annals,
when the thraldom of the oppressor had shut up, in iron
bondage, the spiritual ruler of these fields of the west ; and
immediately the strength of twenty thousand Cornish hearts
arose, like the soul of one man, to set their Bishop free !
My Lord, if all the land beside were false, there ought to
be, here in Cornwall, love and loyalty to your Lordship
still. So, dear lay brethren, if, in the mental conflicts of
the day violent men strive with your Bishop for the mastery
now, it should be to you, the faithful sons and daughters of
the Church, a chosen delight, to occupy the place of Hur
at the ancient ruler's side, and to hold up his anxious hands
all the day long ; that so ye may be found worthy to in-
herit the praise and the blessing of the good old Cornish
name ! "
The following passage in Hawker's sermon referring to
the Tractarian leaders is extremely interesting, when we
remember that, three months after it was written, Newman
seceded to the Church of Rome : —
..." They also, the faithful few, who have lapped the
waters of dear old Oxford, and who were the little company
appointed to go down upon the foe with the sword of the
THE REV. W. HASLAM 185
Lord and of Gideon, and to prevail — honour and everlasting
remembrance for their fearless names! If in their zeal,
they have exceeded ; if, in the dearth of sympathy and the
increase of desolation, they should even yet more exceed —
nay, but do Thou, O Lord God of Jeshurun, withstand them
in that path, if they should forsake the home of the mother
that bare them for the house of the stranger."
Two years after this. Hawker received a visit from the Rev,
W. Haslam, then Vicar of Baldhu, who has related his
experiences at Morwenstow in his book, ' From Death into
Life':—
" This friend," he says of Hawker, " was a poet, and a High
Churchman, from whom I learned many practical lessons. He was
a man who prayed, and expected an answer ; he had a wonderful
perception for realizing unseen things, and took Scripture literally,
with startling effect. He certainly was most eccentric in many of
his ways ; but there was a reality and straightforwardness about him
which charmed me very much ; and I was the more drawn to him,
from the interest he took in me and my work.
" He knew many legends of holy men of old, and said that
the patron saints of West Cornwall were in the Calendar of the
Eastern Church, and those in the North of Cornwall belonged to
the Western. . . He talked of these saints as if he knew all about
them.
" He used to give most thrilling and grand descriptions
of the storms of the Atlantic, which broke upon the rocky
coast with gigantic force, and tell thrilling stories of ship-
wrecks. . . .
" He had daily service in his church, generally by himself, when
he prayed for the people. ' I did not want them there,' he said.
' God hears me ; and they know when I am praying for them, for
I ring the bell.'
" He had much influence in his parish, chiefly amongst the poor,
and declared that his people did whatever he told them. They
used to bring a bunch of flowers or evergreens every Sunday
i86 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
morning, and set them up in their pew ends, where a proper
place was made to hold them. The whole church was seated
with carved oak benches, which he had bought from time to time
from other churches, when they were re-pewed with ' deal
boxes ! '
*' On the Sunday, I was asked to help him in the service, and for
this purpose was arrayed in an alb, plain, which was just like a
cassock of white linen. As I walked about in this garb, I asked
a friend, ' How do you like it ? ' In an instant I was pounced
upon, and grasped sternly on the arm by the Vicar. " ' Like '
has nothing to do with it ; is it right ? " He himself wore over his
alb a chasuble, which was amber on one side and green on the
other, and was turned to suit the Church seasons ; also a pair of
crimson-coloured gloves, which, he contended, were the proper
sacrificial colour for a priest.
" I had very little to do in the service but to witness his pro-
ceedings, which I observed with great attention, and even admira-
tion. His preaching struck me very much ; he used to select the
subject of his sermon from the Gospel of the day all through the
year. This happened to be ' Good Samaritan Sunday,' so we
had a discourse upon the ' certain man who went down from
Jerusalem to Jericho,' in which he told us that ' the poor wounded
man was Adam's race ; the priest who went by was the
Patriarchal dispensation ; the Levite, the Mosaic ; and the good
Samaritan represented Christ ; the inn was the Church ; and the
twopence, the Sacraments.'
" He held up his manuscript before his face, and read it out
boldly, because he ' hated,' as he said, ' those fellows who read
their sermons, and all the time pretend to preach them ; ' and
he especially abhorred those who secreted notes in their Bibles :
* Either have a book, sir, or none ! '
" He had a great aversion to Low Church Clergj'men, and told
me that his stag Robin, who ranged on the lawn, had the same ;
and that once he pinned one of them to the ground between his
horns. The poor man cried out in great fear ; so he told Robin
to let him go, which he did, but stood and looked at the obnoxious
individual as if he would like to have him down again and frighten
"THE FATHER OF SAUCEPANS" 187
him, though he would not hurt him — ' Robin was kind-
hearted.' '
" * This Evangelical,' he continued, ' had a tail coat ; he was
dressed like an undertaker, sir. Once upon a time there was one
like him travelling in Egypt, with a similar coat and a tall hat ;
and the Arabs pursued him, calling him the ' father of saucepans,
with a slit tail.' This part of his speech was evidently meant for
me, for I wore a hat and coat of this description, finding it more
convenient for the saddle, and for dining out when I alighted.
" He persuaded me to wear a priestly garb like his, and gave me
one of his old cassocks as a pattern ; this I succeeded in getting
made to my satisfaction, after considerable difficulty.
" I came back to my work full of new thoughts and plans, detcr-
termined to do what was 'right.' I held up my manuscript and
read my sermon, like Mr. Hawker, and I wore a square cap and
cassock, instead of the ' saucepan ' and the ' tails.' "
When Mr. Ha.slam'.s new church and vicarage were built,
he put up over his door part of Hawker's inscription —
" Be true to Church,
Be kind to poor,
O minister, for evermore."
About this time Hawker had a serious illness, brought
on by mental worry. He was in financial difficulties as
early as 1847. On Nov. 2 of that year he writes to Sir
Thomas Acland, with reference to the sale of some leases
to him, " I am placed in circumstances of so perilous a kind
that the stability of my position here is at stake, and the
Family are earnestly anxious that I should if possible pre-
serve 7ny home. The only possibility to pacify my l^ank
exists in this sale, and I do think that it will be among the
most pleasant recollections of your remaining life if you
' Another version of this anecdote relates that when the Parson recovered
himself, he said to Hawicer, " We have only tiiis morning heen reading, ' in
perils by false brethren I ' "
LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
shall have soothed the last years of Mrs. Hawker's family
which will soon have disappeared from the face of the
earth, and have averted my exile from my Parish and
home." Sir Thomas Acland, with his usual kindness,
acceded to this request. Hawker, like many men of high
spirits and sparkling wit, fell into moods of profound
depression. He was also subject occasionally to loss of
memory.
Thus he wrote to a young relative on 1 3 Feb. 1 848 : —
" My dear William,
"You say you have not heard from me
for some time, but I do think I wrote you last, and, if not,
what good can my letters do ? — I, whose daily prayer
is for death — I, the corpse. Never yet was a man crushed
as I have been. William, I have not smiled for months. I
am never free from that dull, deadly, dragging weight on the
diaphragm, which men may be thought to feel in the inter-
val between sentence and a cruel death. My days, my
hours, are numbered here. I shall not be in Morwenstow
at the close of 1848. Would to God I may ere then be
hidden out of sight ! I have no thing, no one, to live for.
No single reason why, if I were asked by an angel, I
should wish to remain. I loathe life, and I yearn for death
as some men do for wealth or rank. I would kiss the hand
of any man who gave me to drink some deadly thing. O
may God bless you, my dear boy, and make you unlike
me!"
This letter was probably written during his illness, for in
it he seems to have forgotten his wife. As many other
letters show, he was deeply attached to her, and constantly
spoke of bearing his troubles for her sake.
CHAPTER XII
1848
Tennyson at Morwenstow
"Heart-affluence in discursive talk."
Within a few months of the date of his last gloomy letter,
the Vicar was cheered by an unexpected and memorable
event.
Lord Tennyson, in the Life of his father, quotes Aubrey
de Vere as saying, " In the year 1848 Alfred Tennyson had
felt a craving to make a lonely sojourn at Bude. ' I hear,'
he said, ' that there are larger waves there than on any other
part of the British coast, and must go thither and be alone
with God.' "
In his Journal ^ Tennyson writes : —
" Tuesday, May 30th — Arrived at Bude in dark, askt
girl way to sea, she opens the back door ... I go out, and
in a moment go sheer down, upward of six feet, over wall
on fanged cobbles.^ Up again, and walked to sea over dark
hill."
" June 2nd — Tookagig to Rev.S. Hawker at Morwenstow,
passing Comb [i.e. Coombe] valley, fine view over sea,
coldest manner of Vicar until I told my name, then all
heartiness. Walk on cliff with him, told of shipwreck."
Many will regret that Tennyson has not left a fuller
^ F'iJe 'Life of Tennyson,' by his son, Vol I. p. 274.
' Tiie scene of the accident was the garden of the Falcon Hotel, which is
some height above the roadway and at that time had no railings.
l8q
I90 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
account of his visit, but this appears to be all that he has
put on record. Fortunately Hawker supplies the deficiency.
Hitherto, the story of their meeting and conversation has
been a more or less vague tradition, embellished by one
writer and another according to his fancy. By a happy
chance, however, Colonel W. S. Hawker, ^ of Boscastle (a
nephew of the Vicar of Morwenstow), found among his
father's papers a manuscript in the Vicar's hand-writing,
which I am now enabled to copy. The little cross at the
head of the manuscript, a sign of divine favour, indicates
how much the poet's visit meant to him.
"It was in the Month of June 1 848 that my Brother-in-law,
John Dinham, arrived at Morwenstow with a very fine-look-
ing Man whom he had been called in to attend professionally
at Bude for an injury in the knee from a Fall. He said that
the Stranger — for he was unaware of his Name — had made
earnest inquiries about myself — if easy of access, affable, &c.,
&c., to all which he had given him satisfactory replies. I
found my guest at his entrance a tall swarthy Spanish-looking
man, with an eye like a sword. He sate down and we con-
versed. I at once found myself with no common mind.
All poetry in particular he seemed to use like household
words, and as chance led to the mention of Homer's ^ picture
of night he gave at once a rendering simple and fine.
* When the Sky is broken up and the myriad Stars roll
down, and the Shepherd's heart is glad.' It struck me that
the trite translation was about the reverse motion of this.
We then talked about Cornwall and King Arthur, my
' Since this was written I am sorry to have to record the death of Col
Hawker, which occurred at Boscastle in August 1904.
2 Mr. Churton Collins supplies the reference, 'Iliad,' VIII., 555-560.
HAWKER QUOTES TENNYSON 191
themes, and I quoted Tennyson's fine acct. of the restoration
of ExcaHbur to the Lake. Just then he said, ' How can you
live here thus alone ? you don't seem to have any fit com-
panions around you.' My answer was another verse, from
' Locksley Hall ' —
*' ' I to herd with narrow foreheads vacant of our glorious gains,
Like a Beast with lower pleasures, Like a Beast with lower pains ! '
' Why that Man,' said he, ' seems to be your favourite
Author.' ' Not mine only but England's,' answered I.
" Just at this time J. Dinham went away, and I proposed
to shew my unknown friend the shore. But before we left
the room he said, ' Do you know my name ? ' I said, ' No,
I have not even a guess.' ' Do you wish to know it ? ' 'I don't
much care — " that which we call a rose," etc' ' Well, then,'
said he, ' my name is Tennyson ! !' ' What ! ' said I, ' the
Tennyson ? ' ' What do you mean by the Tennyson ? I
am Alfred Tennyson who wrote ' Locksley Hall,' which you
seem to know by heart.'
" So we grasped hands, and ' The Shepherd's heart was
glad.' We went on our way to the rocks, and if the con-
verse could all be written down it would make, I think, as
nice a little book as Charlotte Elizabeth ' could herself have
composed. All verses — all lands — the secret history of
many of his poems, which I may not reveal — but that which
I can lawfully relate I will. We talked of the sea, which he
and I equally adore. But as he told me strange to say
Wordsworth cannot bear its face. My solution was, that
nursed among the still waters with a mind as calm and
equable as his lakes the Scenery of the rough Places might
be too boisterous for the meek man's Soul. He agreed.
We discussed ttovt/wv re kv\i6.tmv, etc., and I was glad to
find that he half agreed with a thought I have long
I Mrs. Hawker.
192 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
cherished, that these words relate to the Ear and not to the
Eye} He did not disdain a version of mine made long ago : —
" Hark how old Ocean laughs with all his Waves.'
Then, seated on the brow of the Cliff, with Dundagel full in
sight, he revealed to me the the purpose of his journey to
the West. He is about to conceive a Poem — the Hero
King Arthur — the Scenery in part the vanished Land of
Lyonnesse, between the Mainland and the Scilly Isles.
Much converse then and there befel of Arthur and his
Queen, his wound at Camlan and his prophesied return.
Legends were exchanged, books noted down and references
given, quae hie perscribere longum. We talked about the
times — old prophecies and new events. He gave me
anecdotes of Guizot and his friends whom he intimately
knows, of Hallam and the London Scribes. He said he
had nowhere a settled home but wandered all the year.
Among his friends in Ireland are the family of Vere de
Vere, but Lady Clara was a fiction of his own. In early
life he went through Spain with Torrejos to incite the
Revolution ; ' and I remember,' he said, ' one day Torrejos
said to me, with one of the softest sweetest smiles I ever
saw, " As soon as we succeed I mean to cut the throats of
all the Clergy." ' This forcibly recalled to me his own
verse on the death of Iphigeneia. ' One drew a sharp
knife thro' my tender throat slowly and nothing more.' I
questioned him about his mode of composition in this so
wandering life. He said he usually made about ten lines
every day,^ multitudes of which were never written down
and so were lost for ever.3 I strongly chode with him for
1 Compare p. 317.
2 Compare Tennyson's sonnet on ' Poet's and their Bibliographies' —
*' Old Virgil who would write ten lines, they say,
At dawn, and lavish all the golden day,
To make them wealthier in his readers' eyes ; "
3 Compare Tennyson's letter quoted on p. 415.
TENNYSON BORROWS A PIPE 193
this. By and bye we went back to the house to dine. He -
said his chief reliance for bodily force was on Wine, and I
should conceive he yielded to the conqueror of Ariadne
ever and anon. The dinner talk was as before. I shewed
him a singular Book (Alford's Greek Poets)/ sent to me as
a gift in remembrance of a happy Sunday spent in
Morwenstow, by the Rev. J. Allen of Ilminster. In it his
name and poetry occurred with praise in many a page, I
lent him Books and MSS. about King Arthur, which he
carried off, and which I perhaps shall never see again.
Then evening fell. He arose to go ; and I agreed to drive
him on his way. He demanded a pipe, and produced a
package of very common shag. By great good luck my
Sexton had about him his own short black dudheen, which
accordingly the minstrel filled and fired. Wild language
occupied the way, until we shook farewell at Combe. This>
said Tennyson, has indeed been a day to be remembered,
at least it is one which I shall never again forget. The
Bard is a handsome well-formed man and tall, more like a
Spaniard than an Englishman — black, long elflocks all
round his face, mid which his eyes not only shine but
glare. His garments loose and full, such as Bard beseems,
and over all a large dark Spanish Cloak. He speaks the
languages both old and new, and has manifestly a most
bibliothec memory. His voice is very deep, tuneful and slow
— an organ, not a breath. His temper, which I tried, seemed
very calm — His spirits very low. When I quoted ' My
May of Life,'^ and again, 'O never more on me,' etc., he
' Dean Alford's ' Chapters on the Poets of Greece' (1841).
* Mr. Churton Collins suggests that Hawker quoted from ' Macbeth ' —
" My ivay of life
Is fall'n into the sear, the yellow leaf."
For the second quotation he suggests the lines in ' Don Juan ' —
"No more, no more, no, never more on me
The freshness of the heart can fall like dew."
N
194 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
said they too were his haunting words. He went next
day to the Castle of his hero King, and traced, I think, the
route I had marked out for him by the Lower Sea. But I
saw him no more ; it may be, shall not greet him in the
flesh again. Still it is to me a great memorial day in this
my solitary place to have heard the voice and seen the
form of Alfred Tennyson. " R. S. H."
In a letter dated 1861, Hawker writes: —
" This is the origin of the ' Idylls of the King.' When
Tennyson was here he made earnest inquiry about King
Arthur. I told him all I knew. Mrs. Hawker lent him R.
J. King's ' Fairy Mythology of Tintadgel.' He wrote ten
lines every day, blotted, revised and preserved. He had
girded himself for an Epic on the theme which divided long
with ' Paradise Lost' Milton's mind over ' The Life and Death
of King Arthur.' But finding, as I infer, that he could not
wait for the judgment and requital of A.D. 2004, and want-
ing, as I know, an income for Children and Wife, he broke
up his purpose into Idylls, Fragments of the Great Theme,
and published now. His wife wrote me a grateful acknow-
ledgment of my lines. He always sends his Books."
In 1856, speaking of a book of poems he had contem-
plated publishing, Hawker says : — " To my chagrin and
loss the whole thing is finally abandoned — falls like a
broken purpose, as Tennyson said of my ' Waterfall ' —
and one lost opportunity more is added to the heaped up
fragments of my bitter existence." Again—
" If I could but breathe into the Sculpture of Words my
lost life — Fast by my house there is a spring of silent waters
walled and roofed — its name is The Well of St. John in the
Wilderness — the stream enters a coppice, where it swells
and grows — it soon rushes brawling among rocks down a
deep gorge towards a cliff called the Raven's Crag. There
A BROKEN PURPOSE 195
it leaps from the brink at a height of 150 feet above the
sea. Just below the steep a rocky basin receives it worn,
non vi, sed scBpe cadendo. Thence seaward it leaps a
second time. But it fails still to reach the tide. It bounds
into the air like a broken purpose, and, caught up and driven
backward by the wind, it is shattered into spray and lost.
It is my life. The picture of my days." ^
In his copy of ' Idylls of the King,' Hawker puts a
note, " compare Henna " (the stream here described) against
the following lines in ' Guinevere ' : —
" Then — as a stream that spouting from a clifif
Fails in mid air, but gathering at the base
Remakes itself, and flashes down the vale — "
Hawker perhaps thought that this simile was suggested
by the Morwenstow stream.
When the ' Idylls ' appeared, in 1859, Tennyson sent a
copy to Hawker, who acknowledged the gift in a set of
verses. He also sent Tennyson a copy of Blight's ' Ancient
Crosses, etc,' a volume containing several contributions of
his own. In reply came the letters from the Laureate and
his wife here reproduced in facsimile.^
Hawker has marked in his copy of the ' Idylls ' other lines
that especially appealed to him. Among these is a passage
in ' Lancelot and Elaine ' peculiarly applicable to himself
' This thought occurs also in his poem 'The Token Stream.'
2 The originals had passed into other hands some years ago, and came to
light again by a singular coincidence. One day in 1903 Mr. Lane was
dining with Professor Sylvanus Thompson, and after dinner picked up a book
on the drawing room table. It proved to be a first edition copy of ' Idylls of
the King,' with the two letters pasted in at the beginning, and in Hawker's
hand the words —
"R. S. H.
from the Author
by Post,
July xxiij., 1859."
196 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
" Never yet
Was noble man but made ignoble talk.
He makes no friend who never made a foe."
Also in * Guinevere,'
" But after tempest, when the long wave broke
All down the thundering shores of Bude and Boss,
There came a day as still as heaven, and then
They found a naked child upon the sands
Of wild Dundagil by the Cornish sea ; "
Against this last line Hawker puts a note, " my spelling,"
in allusion to the word ' Dundagil.' Tennyson subsequently
altered the line, as it now stands,
" Of dark Tintagil by the Cornish sea."
Hawker also pointed out that the breviate of Boscastle
should be spelt ' Bos,' and it is to this that Tennyson refers
in the postscript to his letter. Curiously enough, when
Hawker afterwards published his ' Ride from Bude to Boss,'
he spelt it with the double ' s.'
In i860 Tennyson went down the coast from Bideford
to Tintagel, but there is no record of another visit to
Morwenstow.
Thus Hawker's foreboding was fulfilled- — " it may be I
shall not greet him in the flesh again." One cannot but
regret that Tennyson did not once more " make glad the
shepherd's heart," for we may be sure that the shepherd
would have duly recorded his impressions. But Tennyson
did not quite forget him, as the following letters show.
" Farringford. Feby. 14th, 1861.
" Dear Sir,
" I beg you to accept from my husband and
myself many thanks for your ' King Arthur's Waes-Hael.'
IKIIKR IKdM IKNNVSOX lO H.\\VKF-R
Cyi^uv-<.C</ (/^.ytyi^L^Lyy^ / C^^lx^
1I-. mi:k iKiiM I. MA ! i:.\ ^^■s()^
LETTERS FROM FARRINGFORD 197
" Believe me, with his (Alfred's) kind remembrances,
" Truly yours,
" Emily Tennyson."
" Farringford. May 7th, 1868.
" Dear Mr. Hawker,
" It is very kind of you to remember kindly
words of mine. My husband was from home when your
last letter came. He now desires me to say that he begs
his name may be put down for a copy of your new book.
['Cornish Ballads.']
" Believe me, truly yours,
" Emily Tennyson."
On 1 8 May 1 874 Tennyson wrote to the late Mr. Henry
Sewell Stokes,^ of Bodmin, another Cornish poet : —
" Farringford.
" My Dear Mr. Stokes,
" I thank you for your new Poems, and trust
that you and yours are well and flourishing. What an age
it seems since we first became acquainted with each other
in old Cornwall.
" Do^ if ever you come across Mr. Hawker, give him my
best remembrances, and believe me
" Yours always,
"A. Tennyson."
' Author of ' Restormel,' 'Memories,' 'Poems of Later Years,' 'The Vale
of Lanherne,' ' The Gate of Heaven,' etc. (See pages 589 and 640).
CHAPTER XIII
1848-1852
*' Venio nunc ad tuas litteras, quas plurimis epistolis accepi." — Cicero.
A Characteristic Advertisement — The Sellon Contro-
versy— Gretser — The Letters Begin — The Gorham
Judgment — Hawker becomes Curate of Welcombe —
Letters to his Brother Claud and Rev. W D.
Anderson — The Roman Hierarchy — The Pope and
Wesley — Religious Riots in Cornwall.
From 1850 onward there is extant a great mass of
Hawker's own letters, and from that point I have thought
it desirable to abandon the narrative form for the most
part, and leave extracts from these, arranged in order of
date, to tell their ow^n story. There was hardly any other
alternative, except to discard the greater number, for the
actual events of his life in the corresponding period are too
few and far between for any consecutive account to be
written which should also embody the letters. A long life
passed in one remote place does not lend itself easily to
narrative.
I trust it will be found that the interest of the letters
themselves will amply atone for any abrupt transitions. To
my mind, a man's own words are far preferable to any
r^ckauffe, which too often presents, not the man himself,
but the biographer's impressions.
iq8
RELIGIOUS CONTROVERSY 199
For the next few years Hawker's thoughts were chiefly-
turned to Church matters. In looking through the files
of some old West Country newspapers recently, I came
across the following advertisement in the Western Daily
Mail for 1 849 : —
"The Vicar of Morwenstow, in Cornwall, in unison with his
faithful wardens, is occupied in the restoration of his beautiful
church. Whosoever is desirous to please God by aidance of this
acceptable work will be permitted to make oblation of silver or
gold.
" The Vicarage of St. Morwenna. a.e. 1849."
It was a period of unrest in the ecclesiastical world. In
1850 the re-establishment of the Roman Catholic Hier-
archy in England caused a great outburst both against
Roman Catholics and the High Church Party. Though he
did not label himself High Church,' Hawker favoured that
side, while most of the neighbouring clergy were Evangeli-
cals. As his letters show, the disputes raged hotly in the
West of England. In 1849 a controversy had arisen at
Plymouth, where an Anglican Sisterhood was accused of
Romanising tendencies, but acquitted by the Bishop of
Exeter after a public inquiry. It was called ' The Sellon
Controversy,' from the name of the Lady Superior, Miss
Sellon. As an expression of sympathy with her cause
Hawker wrote his poem, ' A Voice from the Place of St.
Morwenna in the Rocky Land, uttered to the Sisters of
Mercy at the Tamar Mouth.' This was published as a
leaflet, but the printer, writes Hawker indignantly, " sells it,
and pockets every penny — as base a miscreant as ever had
a Devil." Of the same printer he says elsewhere, " He,
like all his Tribe, used my Skull set in Silver as a drinking
Cup."
He wrote the following letter on the same question, using
200 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
as a pseudonym the Latin word for his own name. The
letter appeared in The West of England Conservative, a
Plymouth paper : —
"December 28th, 1849.
"Sir,
" A great deal has been said of late, and especially in
their dismay, by the poor Plymouth people, about an appeal
to the Archbishop of Canterbury, as a judge in their case.
Will you allow me, as it is just possible that even sensible
persons may share in their mistake, to say a few words
on this point ? Except in certain matters of official form, given
to him by Erastian Statutes, the Bishop of Canterbury has no
kind of spiritual jurisdiction beyond his own diocese. In times
of Papal usurpation, when the Archbishop was the Pope's legate
in England, he exercised rule over the other Bishops, but this
legatine authority was abolished by King Henry the VIII. , and
has never been revived in this realm. For the sake of order, and
because, in all societies, some one must preside, the Archbishop
is 'primus inter pares,' but nothing more. An Archbishopric
is by no means an essential element of a Christian church.
National churches have existed without such an office, and doubt-
less will again. The Prayer Book contains no distinct office of
Ordination for an Archbishop. Apostolically speaking, he is a
bishop and nothing more. All missives sent by the Diocesan of
Canterbury to the clergy of any other bishoprics, unless they are
transmitted through the respective bishops, adopted, sanctioned,
and countersigned by them, are so much waste paper. The
interference of an archbishop in any district beyond his own
diocese, would be most indecent and unwarrantable.
"Let us hear no more of these appeals. So long as they re-
main quiescent, much may be forgiven to the ignorance of the
laity, but when they forsake the garrison, the quarter-deck, and
the counter, to become the censors of their ' spiritual pastors and
masters,' whom, in the days of their catechism, they undertook
to obey, they should at least try to make themselves aware of the
powers and authority of those to whom they would appeal.
GRETSER ON THE HOLY CROSS 201
Neither the Queen, the most exalted daughter of the church, but
no more, nor the Archbishop, the occupier of one of the
episcopal chairs, but nothing beyond, can grant anything to the
senseless clamour of the Plymouth people.
"Your's, sir, obediently,
" AUCEPS."
In a note to his poem above mentioned, Hawker says, " I
recommend the slanderers of God's servants, before they
again presume to revile the imaged death-bed of the Lord,
to read, carefully and thoughtfully, the works of Gretser,
published in Latin in seventeen folio volumes, at Ratisbon,
1734-41." Surely a counsel of perfection !
Hawker was at this time making an analysis of Gretser's
book on The Holy Cross. It is full of strange lore, and is
evidently the source from which he drew much of his
fantastic symbolism. At the end of the analysis, which has
not been published, are the words — " Done, April xxviii..
Anno Ecclesiae, 1852."
Some of his own notes on Gretser are very character-
istic : —
" There is a Legend in the West that the Cross was hewn from
Wood of the Aspen-Tree, which ever since hath shuddered with
' The Terror of the Lord.' Another Legend tells that when Lord
Jesu died, the Trees of the Forest all trembled at the Deed,
except the Aspen-Tree. Then the Angel rebuked that hardness of
Heart, and said, for a doom, ' Tremble evermore ! ' Another tale
they tell, that Judas hanged himself on that world-shuddering
Tree."
"'World-mastering' — 'world-shouldering,' are my phrases. I
claim them here and now. 185 1, R. S. H."
" He was smitten, said the Legend of old Cornwall, with a
Bundle of Willow Boughs. Aforetime they grew upright and
tall. But, ever since, they have drooped with a bowed down
memory of Shame."
202 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
"She, the Blesssed Virgin Mary, stood 5 feet 6 inches. She
reached to embrace, and kiss, his feet. He, the same height.
Thus 1 1 feet. This, with one foot above the head for the tablet,
and three in the ground for fixture, will give 1 5 feet, the actual
length of the Stem or trunk ; the transome, lintel, shoulders being
8 feet."
" (The sign of the Cross to be made) me j'udtce, when men meet
a heretic, or pass a conventicle, or hear of schism."
In 1850 the Vicar was evidently in financial difficulties,
and was seeking to increase his income by obtaining the
curacy of Welcombe (a neighbouring village), to hold in
conjunction with Morwenstow. Thus he writes to his
brother at Boscastle, after a visit there : —
" Sept. xxvij., 1850.
" My Dear Claud,
" I find myself very much better for the change of
Scene, and were it not for the bad, base worry of my post-
bag, I could write a Volume of MS. every Night. The
Plurality Act, when I arrived, sent me by Thorns — an
officer of the Lords. Wellcombe is inaccessible to me.
Licence from John S. Cant [the Archbishop] is indispens-
able, and H. Exon has just refused to accept his Signature
in testimonial of a Deacon or Priest.
" Davis (the Rector of Kilkhampton) had a Dinner party
on Wednesday. Three Protestants, Clyde, Thomas and
another, were overturned on their return at night."
He writes again to his brother : —
" Sept., xxix.
" I am just returned from Wellcombe, wet through, having
left my Pony at Marsland Mill and walked thence. The
Flood had come down after I passed onward, and I could
only get back over the footbridge, and by walking over the
THE REV. W. D. ANDERSON 203
knees in the Water. If, however, I can secure a few pounds
by temporary Service, I shall be most thankful. You could
not judge from the demeanour I assumed when with you
how heavy-hearted — how almost afraid to hope I am.
"A letter from . He goes to Kelly this week
(introduced by me) to stay some days. When I look
around I see many like Frankenstein whom I have moulded
from clay into life, and who turn and rend me. A comfort
is that it will not last long, and that the very world where
such things are is but for a very little while."
The following letter was addressed to the Rev. W. D.
Anderson, a young clergyman in the neighbourhood, of
whom Hawker speaks as " one of my sons in the Church."
He was afterwards Rector of Milton Damerel with Cook-
bury in Devon. Hawker's letters to him are in the Library
of Pembroke College, Oxford : —
" Sept. xxix., 1850.
" My Dear Sir,
" is gone. My Prayers were signally
answered. He was struck suddenly with a sore disease just
after he had agreed with the Chief Priests of heresy to
sell the Church for a certain number of pieces of flesh to
make up his congregation. A more direct and visible
doom I never beheld. Until his treachery stood manifest
he was as usual in health. Then all at once entreaty went
up from an adjacent altar, and he went — withered — to return
no more. No one is yet appointed in his stead. I serve
it meanwhile, as before, until a new Nomination. Mrs.
Hawker and I have made a visit to my brother at Boscastle.
We went on Tuesday, and returned on Friday, after having
seen the hills Rough Tor and Brown Willy.
" We visited also Tintagel Castle and Church with many
other curious Antiquities. I have secured, I trust, two
ancient Crosses of Stone and bespoken one new one for
204 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
my Churchyard. Mrs. Hawker enjoyed her drive exceed-
ingly. But for the worry of thought, so should I also.
" The Church Horizon seems dark. But I do not think
there was any warranty for secession in the Gorham Events.
The decision of the Privy Council did not alter the position of
a single Priest. Their departure seems to me more like pique
because they could not have their own way, than anything else.
"All here as usual. The Nine Cats all well and Berg happy."
The beginning of this letter is at first difficult to reconcile
with the Vicar's undoubted charity and kindness of heart.
The fact is that in his composition there was something of
the Grand Inquisitor. In the discomfiture of heresy he put
aside his human and personal sympathies, and regarded
opposition to himself as an offence against the Almighty
through his earthly representative.
Mr. Maskell writes on this subject — " Robert Hawker's
imagination often ran away with him, and he would, un-
doubtedly, connect such occurrences in his own mind and
speak of them as if they were the consequences, in the way
of miracle, of injuries done to himself But he was the last
man in the world to have wished evil to another ; his whole
life was an example of constant kindness to every one, and
of excess of hospitality wherever and whenever it was in his
power ; and his bitterest enemy would have been certain to
receive shelter and help and food."
Mr. Gorham,^ the Bishop of Exeter's opponent, after-
^ The Rev. G. C. Gorham was in 1847 presented by the Lord Chancellor
to the living of Brampford Speke, near Exeter. Bishop Phillpotts, not being
satisfied with his orthodoxy on the question of baptismal regeneration, refused
to institute him. Mr. Gorham brought the case before the Court of Arches,
which decided against him on 2 Aug. 1849. He then appealed to the judicial
Committee of the Privy Council, which reversed the judgment of the Court of
Arches, on 8 March 1850. Mr. Gorham was instituted by the Dean of Arches
(acting for the Archbishop of Canterbury) on 6 Aug. 1851. The Bishop ap-
pealed in vain to the Courts of Queen's Bench, Common Pleas, and Exchequer.
This triumph of Erastianism drove Manning and many others to Rome.
i^i'^^^fi^^'
1 ^
I !i<' til(! Cornish Cross
in Morwf^istow Churchyard.
I he initials are thos(> of
Hawker's first wife, C.I''.. II.
HERBA IMPIA GORHAMENSIS 205
wards visited Hawker, who writes on 17th Oct.
1855:—
" We have had the house very full lately — The Maskells
and their Priests and Monks, Mr. Gorham of Brampford
Speke (introduced by Sir T. Acland), Mr. Frere, a Judge in
India, etc., etc., and Artists many ; more than 50 drawings
have been taken of Font, Altar, etc., etc."
There are one or two other allusions to Gorham's visit in
Hawker's letters. Writing in 1857, after Gorham's death,
he says : —
" Did you see it said in the Papers that kind and forgive-
ing letters had passed between the Bishop of Exeter and
Mr. Gorham ? Poor Man ! the summer before last he came
here, and he stayed some hours botanizing and talking of
his early life. He wrote me afterward, and I now regret I
allowed the correspondence to languish."
In another letter he says : —
" He came here to see me at the age of 74, and seemed
quite healthy and fresh looking, but in two years he was a
dying man from cancer of the tongue. I know you will
scold me for thus fearing a non-existing thing, but there is
a French proverb, * Nothing is more certain than unexpected
things.' "
Elsewhere he writes, " The young seedpods (of the cud-
weed) outgrow the parent stem — hence its name Herba
Impia, the undutiful plant. When Gorham came to Mor-
wenstow, he, being curious in botany, asked me its name, and
I gave it, whereupon he suspected some covert allusion to
his own rebellious demeanour towards the Bishop. So the
name now stands thus — Herba Impia Gorhamensis."
A memorandum in Hawker's hand states that on the
19th of October 1850 he was transcribed for the curacy of
Welcombe, which he continued to serve along with Morwen-
stow for the rest of his life. He writes to his brother : —
2o6 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
" If I can get a deacon at 20 or 25;^ a year, with a title
and tuition, I shall take one, meanwhile I serve it myself —
hard work — but I would work a great deal harder to get
the ;£^93 a year."
Welcombe is in Devonshire, and is divided from Morwen-
stow and Cornwall by the brook that runs in the bed of
Marsland Valley. The way thither from Morwenstow is by
a rough steep lane up and down the valley sides, a difficult
road in bad weather, and a stiff pull for man or beast at any
time. But the beauty of that wooded vale,
" Bi'oad-cloven thro' the green of rolling hills,"
banishes all thought of discomfort or of weariness. Every
Sunday henceforward Hawker rode the three miles to
Welcombe on his pony (or drove when, as they say in
Cornwall, he was " gotten up in years)," to hold an afternoon
service in the little church. The morning and the evening
services he performed at Morwenstow. In his riding days
he used a military saddle, and, with his ample cloak and
fine physique, presented, it is said, something of the appear-
ance of a cavalry officer.
The church at Welcombe, and an ancient well standing
near, are dedicated to St. Nectan, a brother of St. Morwenna.
The fine old carvings in the church, representing the Fruit-
ful Vine and the Barren Fig Tree, have supplied the designs
on the title-page and back of ' Cornish Ballads ' and
' Footprints.' On the lower side of the tympanum
above the pulpit is an inscription, designed to catch the
preacher's eye when he casts it ecstatically heavenward,
" Woe unto you if ye preach not the Word of God." A
wholesome check to heresy.
" In the northern wall," says Hawker, " there is an
entrance named the Devil's door : it was thrown open at
a;
U
WELCOMBE 207
every baptism, at the Renunciation, for the escape of the
fiend ; while at every other time it was carefully closed,"
He declined to bury anyone on the ill-omened north side
of the churchyard. A more enlightened generation has
now arisen, which knows not Hawker, and recks not at what
point of the compass it returns to the ground. But
enlightenment is not always accompanied by artistic taste.
Mr. Baring-Gould says, " Alas ! here the wrecker has been
at work. There were carved bench-ends with curious heads,
technically called poppy-heads, but unlike any I have seen
elsewhere, unique, I believe. These heads have been cut
off, thrown away, and the bench-ends stuck against the
screen. The seats are now of deal."
One summer afternoon, at Welcombe, the Vicar found
that he had left his watch behind, and he wanted one to
time the sermon, in order to be back at Morwenstow for
evening service. So, on arriving at the church he made
inquiries of the people standing about. But time is of no
great import at Welcombe, and no watch was to be had.
At last, just as the service was beginning, an old woman
hobbled up the aisle and handed to the Vicar a large and
ancient timepiece. " Her's only got one hand, your honour,"
she said, " but yu must just gi' a guess."
Hawker always uses the spelling ' Wellcombe,' that [s,
the Combe of the Well. This derivation is discarded by
Mr. R. Pearse Chope, an authority on the antiquities of the
district, who explains the name as meaning ' the Welsh
Combe,' i.e., the combe separating England from Wales ; for
in the Exon Domesday Book it is spelt ' Walcomba,'
and in the Exchequer Book ' Walcome.' On a map
of early England in Green's ' History,' Cornwall and part
of Devon appear as ' West Wales,' and the boundary
between this and Wessex meets the coast just about
where Welcombe is situated.
2o8 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
A popular explanation of the name, current in Morwen-
stow, has been written out for me as follows : —
" It's supposed to be a odd lot livin' out to Welcombe,
an' I'll tell e why. They was rakin' England all auver
once, an' they begun on top an' raked down so ver's
Hollacombe Gate (the name of the cross [i.e., cross road]
that turns into Welcombe), an' then along come a puff o'
wind an' blowed the rakins rat away west'erd. ' Aw !
well, git along an' welcome,' they said ; an' that's how
Welcombe got it's name, an' its the rakins an' scrapins of
all England livin' there ! "
The Welcombe people, it is understood, repudiate the
etymology of their Cornish neighbours.
Hawker gives a delightful sketch of Welcombe and its
inhabitants under the name of ' Holacombe ' in ' Footprints.'
The main bulk of the letters begins at this point. In
those that refer to church matters it will be noticed that a
change has come over the Vicar's attitude towards the
Church of Rome since the ' Field of Rephidim ' sermon of
1845:—
To Claud Hawker, Esq.
"Oct. 1850.
..." The Pope has followed Wesley's example, and
divided England into circuits for Preachers and for Spiritual
taxation, and the Government, which has always sanctioned
the invasion of Church territory by every Sect and Schism,
must now bear the Precedent they have established.
..." [As regards] interference with their doctrine and
worship. Pope Pius the ixth in no respect differs from St.
John of the Spasms, as a merry demon named Wesley.
Neither does the Indulgence of the papal priesthood bestow
more impunit}^ than the release from judgment avouched by
THE PAPAL HIERARCHY 209
the Methodist Cramp. When I came hither with authority
of Orders and by Episcopal Collation I found my Parish
absorbed in a Circuit — my people claimed by a Wesleyan
preacher — my doctrine denied by aliens under sanction —
nay with the applause of the State. What more now ? "
To the Rev. W. D. Anderson.
" Novr. 1850.
. . . " I am in treaty with a Man for the office of Deacon
to me. I want a High Church Man with Low Ch. tend-
encies, or a Low Ch. Man with a High Ch. bias : I don't
care which. I think a Gorhamite might not agree with me,^
nor indeed sho'd I with him. I am quite satisfied with
Wellcombe. The attendance far exceeds Morw'w in re-
gularity, and the demeanour is good. I have a very decent
Dame's School."
To the same.
"Novr. xv.-xvi., 1850.
" My Dear Sir,
" I cannot go to bed until I have chode you.
You were never more mistaken than when you filled out
" R. S. H." in the Guardian with my name. Whensoever
I write any letter in the Papers I always sign my name at
length, ever since The Times, in my Battle with old Walter
about the Offertory, upbraided me with an anonymous
signature ; and for the most part I strive to write good
English, which my friend with the same initials in the
letter you assign to me hardly does. Are you not aware
also that I never forgive an irreparable wrong ; and when
the Guardian people grossly insulted me in an untrue
criticism on my ' Voice,' ^ I shook them off my hand into
' ' A Voice from the Place of St. Morwenna.'
O
2IO LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
the fire. The Roast Beef of Old Pyworthy stated at
Clyde's that all the Holsworthy clergy were unanimous
(like Judas and the Chief Priests), so I concluded you
assisted at the meeting there. I am glad to find you did
not."
"Novr. xvj., 1850.
" My Dear Claud,
. . . " I have had a letter from Tom, [a younger
brother] to night, who seems in a promising condition, at
least his murmurs are not so intense as they usually are.
He has been down at Northampton this year — in all
likelihood he has had something to do with this Papal
Bull, as he had with the French Revolution in 1830. H.
has written a very weak letter in the Cornwall Gazette.
He calls on us to defend the Queen's Supremacy. Why
should we ? What has the State ever done for us ? Has it
€ver defended us when Methodism has invaded our Parishes
and assumed the instruction of our People ? What King or
Queen has ever shielded us from a single Insult ? Let
Queens take care of themselves for me. The amusing part
of the thing is the annoyance expressed by Dissenters at
the Pope. What possible odds can it be to them ? They
have long ago forsaken the only Body of Men which is
menaced now. They are as fatal to the Church as ever
Roman Catholics can be. As well might a Club of Deists
complain as any Sect. Just as well might Mohammedans
protest as Methodists against this attack on the English
Church. I see that a Jew (Alderman Salomons) has
declared himself a Protestant, as well he may, because the
word merely means, ' One who denies a thing ' — ' A man
who doubts and disbelieves certain tenets.' A Protestant
may be a very firm one, and yet not have one article of
belief"
PIUS IX. AND SPASMODIC JOHN 211
" (Novr. xviij.)
" I had letters last Night from a Commissioner for the
Oxford Inquiry — Jeune — from an R.C. Dignitary — from
four leading Men of the controversies — from a Yorkshire
Clergyman, to ask my opinion about a New Society
of Priests to meet the movement — from J. S. J. with Ply-
mouth handbills, and from a Deacon to enquire about my
Situation for one. I would send you more but for weight
— my letter bill is no joke ... I heard also from Haslam
last night. He is agitating for a public meeting ; and when
they meet what are they going to say ? I as an English-
man want even-handed Justice. I demand that Every
Authority which shall partition England into Districts for
ecclesiastical or pastoral purposes shall be restrained. I in-
sist that Every Ministry foreign to the Church shall be dis-
claimed. I call for the suppression of Every adoption of
our Titles of Reverend and Right Reverend shall be
punished \sic\ and if these claims are conceded Pius the
ixth and Spasmodic John must alike withdraw."
The following evidently relates to some Protestant de-
monstration : —
..." The Hony. Secy, is to produce a Roll of Brimstone
5 feet 10 ins. in length and one foot in diameter, of the same
kind as R.C's. burn in Hell. Gee will exhibit in a single
Diagram all the grimaces made by the Smithfield Martyrs,
and Bevan will rehearse the full and total Protestant Creed
of the Assembly with his Mouth shut. Sir G. Grey refused
to present his Petition which he thinks significant of harm
— So do I. He wants me to give Sir George Prevost (a
Clergyman) leave to repeat a communication which I had
made the Bishop on some Platform, but I have refused. I
will not be mixed up with the Judasites — about 3000 of
the Clergy will depart if the Prayer Book is touched, and if
Lord John does not take care I shall advertize in The
212 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
Times for the Heir-at-Law of James Stuart, who will hear
of something to his advantage if he will apply."
"Novr. xxvij., 1850.
" My Dear Claud,
" The infamous uproar goes on. The outcries of
possession — Every Sign recorded in History as the index of
habitation by Fiends is as common now in England as at
Gadara in the days of our Lord. The fierce malignant
yells — the bold bad falsehoods — the blasphemies against
every holy name — the rage at all religious practice — these
indicate to me with historic accuracy that the possessions
are in fearful number over the land. The power to enter in
was never revoked, and the facilities of entrance in England
are innumerable. The body of an unbaptized person is
open to a demon always. Baptism has been so dishonoured,
so irregularly administered where performed at all, that no
hindrance exists to the fiend in the very doorway of life.
Then, by flagrant Sin, such as Blasphemy, which is Slander
of God or his Saints or his Church, the latch is lifted again.
When I read the daily papers I recognize the signs con-
tinually. There is the grin, the sputter, the husky bark,
and The Squawk of the demon on every platform, and good
imitations of the human voice. Exorcism duly performed
would make strange discoveries in these assemblies of the
people. There are words and signs which would throttle
many a loud bully, and cast him on the ground foaming.
One thing is clear, from the number of these speakers and
roarers, Hell must be half empty. It will be absolutely
necessary for Cumming, and Croly, and others, to die to fill
up the Staff of the Great Adversary. I have had circulars
headed by broken-legged G and the Gibbons, Curate
of Lanson, and others (The Archdeacon and the Rural Dean
having refused to call a Meeting), to con\'ene me to the
RELIGIOUS LIBERTY 213
Townhall, there to witness these spasms, with letters inclosed
for * the pious laity of my Parish.' I put them all into the
Element prepared for them and for their angels from the
beginning. I am not going to join the Deserters from the
Ranks in defending the discipline of the Army. Let
Uzzah die. Neither am I going to proclaim myself a
Protestant whose Creed is Nay Nay — nor an advocate for
That universal No called the Reformation, the pretext for
Royal lust and Noble robbery, nor, in short, to follow the
vile Multitude to do evil.
..." The Wesleyans have made no move officially. Their
own Craft would be imperilled by every paragraph in the
usual petitions. What a noble Nation ! Religious liberty !
that is. Freedom to hold the opinions of the Mob — differ one
jot from the /(^ces, and they call for the gyves. Free discussion!
Yes, if you propound what the populace may approve — if
not, be gagged. No persecution ! No — not while you merely
denj/ tenets — protest against truths — assert one article of
the Apostles' Creed, and they kindle the fire and sharpen
the knife. . . . Ignorance deep and grovelling. The open
Bible, which they can neither read nor understand. Bigotry
beyond the Spanish Inquisition — for there the victim may
speak — and Blasphemy from which the fiends may learn a
lesson, but which they would deliver in better taste. And
this is the famous Nineteenth Century ! And now that I
have accurately defined the Age, I shall conclude. . . .
" Yrs. Affy.,
" R. S. H."
"Deer, iv., 1850.
" My Dear Claud,
" No man who hopes to win thro' life in public
paths should ever indulge temper — it stings.
..." What came off at Camelford papally ? After the
214 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
Arch-deacon and Rural Dean had refused, Master Glanville
and Gibbons called a Meeting at Lanson, convened me and
my laity — I put all in the fire. Now comes a Petition
to Mrs. Guelph, which contains a lie, viz., that the Queen
can make a Bishop, and this is sent to me ' To be signed by
my Parishioners.'"
" Deer. XX., 1850.
•' My Dear Claud,
..." You have heard, I suppose, of the Stratton fiends.
After they had burnt the Pope and Cardinal, they formed a
large Cross of Wood, insulted and mocked it in devilish
derision, and then blew it into atoms with gunpowder, as
they would with our Saviour on it if they could. Did I
write this before ? A fire broke out a night or two after-
wards and Scawen's Malthouse &c. was burnt to the ground
— if the whole town, so much the better. I cannot get back
my letter from the Guardian, nor did he insert it. If he had,
it would have explained McNeile's speech, or rather that
which the evil Spirit said out of him. The Bishop of Lon-
don's infamy transcends everything told in Cromwell's
time. I would not have his guilt on my Soul for his Mitre
and his Money and long life. . . .
" Nothing can surpass the demoniac treatment here.
The Churchwardens have had the circular sent to every
Parish from the National Club, full of queries as to what the
Clergy do — what Puseyism they practise — all their habits,
doctrines, &c. The Duke of Manchester and Lord Ashley
are at the head of it, and the aim is to drive out of the
Church all but such ones as S. K. & Co. I hope to carry
on a little longer for poor C.'s sake."
Hawker describes some of these religious riots in his
analysis of Gretser. (See page 201.) He begins his notes
on one chapter with the heading ' Zwinglius and his Heresy.'
lilSIKH' I'llII.T.I'OIIS (1851)
A/tirn iiii:zzTtint ciii;yai'ed by Williaiii Walker Jroin ,i />aiuthii^ by T. A. M'ooluoih
I rri-,,1/,- plalr. froii, Ihc iolltxHoii 0/ O-.vcn PriUhai-d. M.P.j
THE BISHOP IN DISGUISE 215
" But," he breaks off, " why should I defile my pen
with any record of their infamy? Rather let their
Blasphemies perish with the unwritten Curses of the
Jews who cried out before Pilate ! ' Their heresy per-
ish with them.'
" Yet,
" Be it remembered that, in England, calling itself Christian,,
in the Nineteenth Age, more unutterable blasphemy and
sacrifice degraded God's Image, in 185 1, than the Former
Globe had seen.
"In Exeter, a wooden copy of our Blessed Lord's Cross
was burnt with Curses at the Cathedral Door. An effigy
of the Bishop Henry, dressed like the Enemy of Man, was
burnt. An image of Our Lord's Blessed Mother, also,
" And hearken to me ! R. S. H.
"A Committee of Clergymen and others, in Stratton, set
on foot, subscribed unto, and cheered : An Ass led in
mockery of Our Lord's entrance into Jerusalem. A Cross
of Wood was burnt, and blown up with Gunpowder.
Savage and Brutal curses on Our Lord's Mother, and every
Saint ! ! I had the honour to be reviled also.
" R. S. H.
To Rev. W. D. Anderson.
"Jan. 1851.
..." The Country seems thoroughly sick of the Row.
The Stratton people are very sore about the Insulted Cross.
I have renamed the Town ' Stratton of the Cross,' and my
friends so direct their letters to me. I have never moved
hand or foot. I wrote a letter to the Guardian attributing
the uproar to Demoniac possession, but the Editor rejected
2i6 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
it, from anger with me. Yet my anonymous paragraphs he
copies from Notes and Queries &c., every now and then.
Ten days after my letter ought to have appeared, wherein I
shewed how the Evil Spirit cried out from the Man,
McNeile uttered, or rather his Devil, that ' atrocious senti-
ment ' which he was compelled to recall. What have your
Church Wardens done with the letter from The National
Club ? Mine have brought their copy to me. Now, pray write
and tell me your tidings. Say, too, how many children you
have. Some say four. The way I met the Row here was,
the day after they mocked the f I ordered a new
Gr. f to be cut in granite for my Church gate with
Steps ! And I have told them if they dare murmur
I will put a Stone Cross in every perch of consecrated
Ground."
When some friends told him that his letter to the
Guardian was libellous, he wrote : —
" There is not an actionable phrase in it. There is
not a word half so libellous as Kendall's direct accusation
that the Clergy called ' Tractarian ' are more criminal than
Papal Persons ; a charge which, if true, would be as fatal to
their continuance in the receipt of their Incomes as the
guilt of Felony. The plain truth is that the whole Age is
a Time of cowardly Negation, and, as Earl Derby so
bitterly said, of compromise. Formerly there were Men,
now there are nothing but Votes. Of old, an insulted
Gentleman damned his Adversary on the spot. Nowadays
the Individual makes up a prim mouth and says, ' May the
Lord in his judgments utterly take away every hope of thy
final Salvation!' The very hangman says, with a bow, 'Allow
me, Sir, to adjust this bandage,' and the Prisoners subscribe
for a piece of plate to present to the ' considerate official '
who discharged his painful duties in such a gentlemanly
way."
"PAPAL HAGGRESSION" 217
" Feast of Canversion of St. Paul.
"25 Jany. 1851.
"My Dear Claud,
..." Casebourne ^ continues to lecture at Bude on
' Papal Haggression.' He marches to the Meeting in State at
the appointed hour, and a little girl goes before him with what
he calls a Polly-got Bible in her arms. I am sorry to say
that Casebourne adopts the Supra-lapsarian theory, and his
little girl is a Sub-lapsarian, which brings confusion.
" I have written to the Bishop about my Curate some time
ago, but to my surprise I have had no answer. If he does
listen to my Slanderers, I cannot help it. I have sacrificed
everything I had on Earth for the Church, and to keep my
position here, and if I am treated no better than a man who
has done nothing but drain the emoluments without the
outlay, I cannot help it."
" Nov. xxiij., 185 1,
" My Dear Claud,
..." What a thought it is to think that about £600
would unshackle my mind, nerve my heart, enable me to
work with MSS. such as no other Man in England has, and
set up as Helper of your Children with influence such as
few ever shared ! But regret is mere and fruitless. ... I
do not catch your meaning in ' Dandyssimus Episcoporum.'
If you mean the greatest Dandy of the Bishops, it is
utterly inapplicable. Bagot of Bath and Wells is a grave
elderly Nobleman, as well as Bishop, of the Wellesley
Family — Sober in apparel and equipage, and of very solemn
Manners ; The only sound Man beside our own in the West
of England. Inquire farther, and tell me clearly what is
meant. Charlotte is down at her Piano, which is a great
amusement to her, and I am up writing to you. That In-
' His brother-in-law.
2i8 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
strument has been a sad eyesore to certain people. I am
to pay by Instalments — the first Instalment due January
next. But, condemned or not, I am resolved she shall have
every little comfort in my whole power to my last breath.
No one knows her inestimable worth but me."
"Feb. iv., 1852.
"My Dear Claud,
..." We are as usual mentally and bodily. Wars
impend. A French patrol of the Guard will occupy Morwen-
stow — the Officer and I shall have pleasant shooting, and a
Corporal will carry a game bag to pick up Dissenters in."
To a Neighbour.
"Feb. xxvii., 1852.
" My Dear Sir,
• . . " ' Never understate a truth,' is an old axiom
of Rhetoric. . . . You must perceive that no concession, no
forbearance, no flattery, will win you even decency of
treatment from minds so deeply base as B. & Co. If you
spare them, they will never spare you. The experience of
all travellers has proved that kindness to a savage is always
interpreted to be fear, and they who shew compassion, like
poor Kennedy in Australia, are always murdered. I will
never save the life of a Negro again."
"April vij., 1852.
"My Dear Claud,
..." To those who look at the events of this life
with the ken of faith there is nothing strange in A.'s success.
There is a Spanish proverb which tells us that God never
strikes with both hands, z>.. He never punishes in Two
Worlds. When a Man's Damnation is irrevocably sealed
he very often is allowed to prosper here on Earth without
THE PLACE FOR A SNEAK 219
a check, and that for the equitable reason because after
death he will never have one happy moment again. In a
case like A.'s there can be no plainer augury of a fixed
doom of irrevocable anguish than a series of successful
schemes of human enjoyment especially towards old age.
Villains very often enjoy all that the Earth can bestow,
because the Place beyond this Life has not a single comfort
to give them. These triumphs of the Wicked, which short-
sighted men deplore, are nothing but the garlands which are
put upon the victim's neck when he is just about to be
led forth to the slaughter. God never pays His faithful
Servants in silver or gold or other rewards of earthly coin.
That which they inherit is of such a sort as human eye
never saw nor heart of Man conceived. It would be a very
paltry thing if a Man served God solemnly for a period of
time, and then received a few Sovereigns or a piece of land
for his pay. Perhaps the most fearful sight a Man can see
is the face of his own corpse, when a few moments after
severance, he stands by his own Deathbed, nothing but
Soul — Then as he turns and sees an Angel standing by,
who will say to him, ' Let us go,' that Soul of the Villain
will never smile again.
" H. did not ask me to vote for Robartes, nor did I say how
I should go. But I mean to take no part. Bentick and
D'Israeli and the Protectionist Partizans are the deadliest
Enemies of the Church now in England, and I happen to
be aware that they have a policy in embryo whereby they
intend to diminish the Rentcharge by an infamy. Very
few in England know this. But I do. is coming
forward to eject Sir T. Acland. But where should a Sneak
go but to the House of Commons ! I have a thorough
contempt for Lord Derby and his venomous ' No Popery '
cry. None but the foeces of England ever rallied under
such a dastardly watchword. But the Prots exult in their
220 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
champion, and he has counted votes and found Guts and
Garbage to predominate. You may tell Robartes if you
see him that I shall not vote for his Antagonists, if you like.
I am not a vote but a Man. The reverse is the general
fact People are not Men but votes."
To Rev. W. D. Anderson.
"May iij., — 52.
"My Dear Sir,
" I did not think you at all inconsistent, for I
agree with O'Connell, that no man can be called so unless
he adopts Two conflicting opinions at the same time ; if he
allows five minutes to interv^ene, as I belie\-e you always do,
then he is only contrasting his sentiments to avoid mono-
tony, which is always vapid and tiresome."
There is many a true word spoken in jest, and in this
confession of faith as regards consistency ^ we may find the
key to Hawker's clerical career.
' See page 645.
CHAPTER XIV
1852-1855
Wreck of the ' Primrose ' — Letters to Richard Twin'ikg .\xd
Miss Louisa Twixixg — "The Arisen Dead'" — Letters to
Sir Thomas Aclaxd, Rev. W. Waddox ^L\RT^-x^ Rev. \V.
West, Dr. Lee, axd Rev. W. D. Axdersox — "A Vile
Rebellion '■' — A Visiox — The Immaculate Coxceptiox
— St. Thomas Aquixas — "Johx Miltox ; Th.\t Pltcit.oc
Thief" — "A Blasphemixg Smithery "" — Di5CO\'erv of
PisciXA— " L. S. D.^-"— The Postmax Poet— A Very Rur-^l
DE.A.X — A Village Coedex — "A Precious Piece of
Popery."
In the summer of 1S52 another wreck took place at Mor-
wenstow. Though lacking the element of tragedy in
those of 1842-3, it affords a good exam.p'e of Hawker's
zeal in protecting the interests of the o-.vners, and in sub-
cuing the native propensit}- to regard wrecks as a pro-
vidential source of income. He wrote the following
account of the occurrence a few years later :
'•J-cly X., iS:6.
. . . "We have had a terrinc storm the night of Monday
— it blew what Sailors call a whole Gale of Wind. Ail
Night it kept us av.-ake listening for the knock at the door
that has thrice roused me from Bed — ' There's a vessel
ashore. Sir.'
" Last time in August 1852, just at Break of Day. came
221
222 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
that cry, and I, in Cassock and Slippers, rushed down to the
Shore. There she lay with a Jury Mast and Sail (her
proper masts were gone). I was first on her deck, and
made haste below. The cabin door was shut, and there
was a noise within. I called — opened the door, and two
little dogs, pets of the Sailors, leaped out and devoured
me with caresses of joy. The Crew had been taken off
the wreck by a Bristol Pilot Boat just before she stranded,
and they had shut the dogs in to save their lives. When
I had searched the Berths and found no one there, I went
on deck, and looking down the hold, I found she was
freighted with copper ore. My man (a Farm Servant) and
I then hauled in every rope, and by the time the country
people came down we had fastened a cable round a rock.
I then spoke to them over the bulwarks — told them if they
would work to save the property, the law would give them
double wages, but that if they robbed the Vessel of the
smallest thing I would myself see them sent to Bodmin Gaol.
"The result was that all the Cargo was carried up a
zigzag path, cut in my own cliffs for the purpose by the
owners, on the back of donkies, and the ship was taken to
pieces, and sold on the Beach. Not Sixpennyworth even
of her tackle was stolen. Her owners were Michel &
Co., of Truro, Merchants.
" Robert Michel came up to the Scene. He said, ' What
can I do for you to requite you for all your trouble and
care ? ' (The Captain and Mate set ashore by the Pilots
had arrived soon after the Wreck, and the Captain had done
nothing but weep in great anguish for the loss of his Ship.
She was called the Primrose.)
" My answer to Mr. M., ' If you really wish to oblige me,
give Captain Harris another ship.'
" He said, ' I cannot. We have i8, but they are all full.
But I will tell you what I will do, Mr. H. I will build a
ST. PAUL WITH A TEAPOT 223
Vessel for him, and you shall give her a name in remem-
brance, if you please, of your Parish.'
" He did so, and soon after a Schooner, called The Mor-
wenna, was launched at Truro, and now sails this and the
other Channel with the Captain on board. He writes me
often, and I write him. But Michel & Co. did more.
"Soon after there arrived a Box, with a Glass Case
mounted on Mahogany in it, and specimens to fill it of
minerals from their own Cornish mines, beginning with
plain lead and running up thro' gradual pieces of ore up to
pure Silver in a mass on the top. This gift altogether cost
them i^20 or £2^. There is an inscription (flattering) on
the pedestal recording the wreck and the reason of their
gift. But (and it is not from ingratitude or want of feeling)
I have never allowed a copy to be taken for the papers
altho' often asked. Still I will send you ^ one if you wish
it, only it must not be made public. The truth is, I very
much dislike that usage of testimonials which has crept in,
especially among the Clergy and their partizans. You
cannot conceive St. Paul with a teapot or St. John with a
Silver Jug. Not that I dare class any Clergyman nowadays
with them, but merely as illustration of the sense — the in-
stinct one ought to have of such matters."
" ' Inscription on Mahogany Case.
'"Presented to the Reverend R. S. Hawker, Vicar of Morwenstow,
by Robert Michel & Son, owners of the Schooner Primrose of
Truro, which was wrecked at Morwenna, in the above Parish, on
the 12th of August 1852, and is intended as a grateful acknowledg-
ment of his unwearied kindness and hospitality to the Captain
and Mate, and for his preservation of the Hull and Stores of the
said Vessel.'
' This letter was addressed to Mrs. Watson (see page 278).
224 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
" N.B. — Morwenna in the above inscription is a mistake
of Mr. Michel ? It should have been Morwenna's Station
or Stowe.— R. S. H."
About this time Hawker formed, through the post, some
new friendships — one with the late Mr. Richard Twining,
the well-known banker and tea-merchant, to whom he
writes : —
" I have just read Fortune's New Book of Travels in the
Tea Countries of China, and I am astonished to discover
that there is no such thing as natural Green Tea.
"We are in the very midst of a contested Election, and
you may be surprised to hear that I do not support the
Protectionist Candidate, a Mr. Kendall. I deem a tax on
Bread Corn sinful and unjust, and I had rather my Rent
charge should fall, than that it should ascend amid the
cries of the hungry and poor for dearth of food. Besides,
the laws of human increase and of the production of Bread
are in the hands of One too awful to be meddled with by
Man."
Through Mr. Twining, Hawker came to correspond with
Miss Louisa Twining, whose books, ' Symbols and
Emblems of Early and Mediaeval Christian Art,' and
' Types and Figures of the Bible,' were such as to appeal
strongly to his tastes and sympathies. On 4 Sept. 1852,
he wrote to her : — "You refer to the MS. extracts which I
transcribed for you some time since. ^ Their history is this :
I hav'e kept on my table for many years a Thought Booky
in which I write down every reference, question, and idea
worth preserving which may come to me in course of read-
ing or meditation. The latter, which I practise in my
Chancel — alone and often at night — is my most abundant
source of instruction. There mysteries are made clear,
doctrines illustrated, and tidings brought, which I firmly
» Among these were the accounts of his seals, given in Chapter VIII.
MISS LOUISA TWIXIXG 225
believe are the work of angelic ministr>'. Of course the
angels of the altar are there, and the angel of my own
baptism is never away.
" Now I am going to give you a strong proof of trust and
sympathy. I will gather up at random two or three of
my MSS. and send them to you by Ebers next week."
MS. Sent to Miss Twining.
" The Arisen Dead.
"Among the arisen Dead, at the last Day, there will be seen
neither children nor aged men. In the interval between Death
and Resurrection the reliques of the first body will expand and the
separate Soul will grow mature. By the deep influence of the
sacraments upon the bodies of the baptized, and thro' the thrilling
sympathy of the Communion of Saints which reaches to the far
spirit from the earthly grave, there is a mutual and common disci-
pline for Paradise between the Body and the Soul. The old and the
decayed will in the sepulchre renew their youth. The young and
the incomplete shall increase in stature and in frame. Every
example of the resurrection arose to second life beautiful and
strong. The young man of Nain (the lovely city), the Ruler's
daughter, Lazarus of Bethany — and far above all, the Master
Himself, came forth from the rock in the strength of mid life — 30
years old and 3, and He stood before Mary in the garden the
breathing statue of the Awakened Dead. Now we know that our
vile bodies will be fashioned hke unto his glorious Body, in aspect
of age and in hues of Immortality: 15 centuries of the Church
so understood the prophecy of St. Paul that in the Resurrection
we shall arrive unto the perfect Man, unto the measure of the
stature of the fulness of Christ. Let us now look at the valley of
Armageddon. The Dead are raised up ! amid those multitudes
there is neither the tottering foot of childhood nor the bent frame
of age. The arisen Ranks have neither failure nor blemish nor
any such thing. There is distinction, identity and name. But
father and son are side by side, as it will be ever and anon ou
p
226 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
earth, both young ; mother and daughter will be beautiful alike,
the face and the shadow both fair in the glass of Immortality.
Cannot we conceive these shapes of blameless mould ? Light,
clear, perfect, holy, mystic in their stature and form, clothed in
white garments such as are ever worn in Heaven — Limbs that
have neither defect nor any excess, etherial frames wherein to see
God.
"The Saints, the Martyrs, and Apostles of old Time were
drawn and painted by the early artists such as their second bodies
would appear. The sons of the resurrection shone upon the
window and the wall. The legend of their features was religiously
preserved, the outline of their forms was delivered in the Church,
and then the simple Workman drew the solemn, thin, aerial, mystic
form, such as should ascend from the sepulchre in the final Day
of God. Hence came the quaint unearthly imagery in fresco and
on glass, those shadowy outlines of the arisen dead.
" When Curzon visited the monasteries of the Levant, it was
his usage to look with mockery on the Pictures which were shown
with such homely pride by the lonely Monks. He derided the
conventional delineations, the ignorance of anatomy and design,
the unalterable adherence to the models of antiquity. But the
Eastern artist had nobler conceptions and purer taste than the
Anglican critic. The Monastic pictures were prophecies and
images of Man's glorified nature and supernatural mould. Tra-
ditions of unearthly loveliness were embodied in every form.
The Ancestors of Christian Art were fain to pourtray man refined
from corporeal grossness, divested of all earthly exuberance, and
clothed in the awful garb of a spiritual Body.
" Until Raphael's manhood the ancient Painters carefully ad-
hered to the traditions of their art. They delineated the Lord
and his Apostles with the well-known features, the legendary form,
the well-known raiment of their Syrian existence, and they added
according to their Power hues wh. have words and speak to you
of Heaven. But when Raphael was 30 years old he adopted the
guilty practice which other artists have pursued. He painted
the Christ no longer, but a Christ from living models chosen
among men."
EXORCISING A VESTRY 227
Another epistolary friendship began in this year, through
the medium of Notes and Queries, with the Rev.
William West, a contributor thereto under the pseudonym
of " Eirrionach." Mr. West was at one time Curate at
Hawarden, and knew Mr. Gladstone. He has edited the
works of Archbishop Leighton. He and Hawker never
" greeted in the flesh," but they corresponded for many
years.
On 27 December 1852, Hawker writes to him : —
" My Dear Sir,
" My usual Xmas duties have reed, this year the
addition of a vile Rebellion in my Parish of Five Farmers
who have made a fruitless attempt to diminish The Church
Rate. A Vestry was convened, over which I read the
Exorcistic Service of the Western church, in Latin of
course. They knew not the meaning of the voice, but
those who inhabited them did. The five fled from the
Room howling, as my Deacon will attest, and my Rate
was forthwith carried by a Majority of 24 to i. Yet is
Morwenstow full of Dissenters, altho' I have never once
failed to carry my Point. But then I always do it thro'
my Angel and The Angel at the Altar. When I have a
desire to fulfil, or a Doctrine to be made clear, my usage
is to resort to my Chancel, and there to utter aloud my
want. Almost invariably I perceive the reply. Words
flow into my mind silently ; e.g., not long agone on St.
Lucy's day I desired to understand why Her eyes on a
dish in her hand are always shewn in the old frescoes, &c.
They were never pulled out, nor are the Fathers able to
explain the origin of this representation. It was breathed
into my mind that, in Syracuse as in Corinth, ' to pluck out
the eyes for a friend ' signifies to give the best and dear-
est thing we have. Now St. Lucy (whose name was Lux)
228 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
did give freely her Light of Life to Her Lord, and this the
quaint old Masters shewed in symbol on the Dish, I give
you this instance because it could not have come to me
from Books : no Writer even suspects the Truth.
" I remember once I was earnest to be told in what
manner and way The Great Change was wrought in
Chancels when The Mighty One descends. Deep in
Thought I saw, not with eyes, but with my whole Body,
a grave calm noble Form in White. He said, or breathed,
this phrase, ' Ephphatha is good but Amen is better still.'
I went away with this saying in my mind for long before
I understood its force. At last in Chancel too it came to
me that in The Mysteries ' Be opened,' ' Be made clear,'
is not so Churchlike or so happy for a Xtian Mind as
* So it is,' ' so let it be.' ' Knowledge,' in this Portal of
The Church Universal, Life, is not so desirable as
'Acquiescence.' But perhaps The Paper which I inclose
may give you more graphically still the instruction I
receive. I live afar off from Books and Society of Men.
Beyond the Boundary of Morwenstow I very seldom go.
My own Volumes are but few. And yet, strange to say,
there is hardly a point of Doctrine which I am fain to
know but I receive it in clear and beautiful Words as the
lightning leaps from the dark cloud suddenly.
" Remember I do not pretend to holier Life than other
Men. Far, very Far from that. God be merciful to me a
grievous sinner. But for Seventeen Years I have fought
the Battle of the Church in this Corner with a single
human Succour. The Clergy around me — the wretched
Heretics, the spawn of that miscreant John Wesley — the
Rich and potent Landlords — all these have assailed me,
and I have scourged and beaten them all continually. My
sole Reliance has been on the young Men in white Gar-
ments, whom I can well nigh see, and they have conquered
SIR AHAB 229
for me * an host of Men.' Once Sir J. Buller tried to take
from me my Holy Well and a piece of ground. I had but
2'j£ on Earth, for I am poor, but with one only Collect
said nightly at the Altar I encountered the wealthy
Baronet, Lord of the neighbouring Soil, and I did thrash
him well. The Jury gave me an immediate verdict, and
Sir Ahab paid into Court 1370;^, his own costs and mine.
I laid the foundation stone of this Vicarage with but dfO£
in my possession, and, with the help of my dear Wife's
Portion, I have built it well.
"And now enough of myself. Solitude makes Men
Selfpraisers, and a Bemdoster Herr, as the Germans call
lonely Readers, a Mossy Vicar, likes to talk about his
own importance."
To the Rev, W. Waddon Martyn.
" Jany xix., 1853.
" My Dear Sir,
" I am too ill to write much. The sea is casting
up her dead on my shore, and a few nights agone a Ship
went down at Midnight just by my Cliffs, after firing minute
guns for a dismal time, and I and my Men stood by a
Beacon we had set ablaze in vain and shouted, fired and
did all our helplessness could do, until at last 3 guns in
quick despair and down she went.
" We are looking for bodies every tide,
"Yours mournfully,
" R. S. Hawker.
" Who was the Author of Two vols, published about Ten
or twelve years agone, ' Rome under the Caesars and under
the Papacy ? '" ^
' 'Rome as it was under Paganism, and as it became under the Popes.'
By John Miley, D.D. (1843).
230 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
" Monvenstow. Feb. viij., 1853.
" Dear Sir Thomas Acland,
" I take leave to transmit by the Bude Mail of
to-day a packet of Memorials of Bude and Morwenstow.
The former will serve to shew your Children and their
Children what a change you have wrought in that sandy
desert. Among the papers you will find a sketch of poor
Matt. Fortescue's tomb at Harold's Cross whereon my Four
Lines ^ were carven before I sent them on for your in-
spection. Among the Episodes of my strange life here of
late we have picked up and buried one more Sailor,
and one Night about xij. we were aroused from our
quiet by minute Guns at Sea which boomed up our
valley and shook every Door. We rushed up to the
Brow of Hennacliffe (called variously Sir T. Acland's
and Pio Nono's Cliff) and there we kindled a caution-
ary Beacon of Furze. We have reason to think that
a Russian Ship had lost the Land in Harty Race
and that by our Light she found it and made Bide-
ford next day. At all events I have had a letter of
kindness from Lloyds. My men and myself are now
watching for the Bodies of the Master of the Margaret
Revenue Cutter and her Men (two) who were drowned
while going off to a ship that had shewn a signal this side
Lundy. The Boat came ashore just above Wellcombe
Mouth. We very much wish that the Coastguard at Bude
had orders to extend their Beat thus far on diUy. They
now come mero motu and howsoever well they behave
have no reward beyond the purely Protestant pay of an
approving conscience. It gave us all great delight to read
that Sir Thomas Acland and his Sons supported Mr. Glad-
stone instead of the Hybrid Member or rather Candidate."
^ See page 286.
LEGEND OF THE BLACK ROCK 231
"June vj., 1854.
" Dear Sir Thomas Acland,
" Your own kind heart must plead my apology
for transmitting the inclosed Statement. The pith of the
matter is that our poor old friend the Major is in a
position so precarious as to make the acquisition of a very
few pounds a deep anxiety : he conceives that he may
possess a kind of claim on the Late Lord Ashburton which
might be acknowledged by the present Lord, and his
friends conceive it possible that if Sir Thomas Acland
could without impropriety suggest some remembrance of
this claim on Lord A. he would not be angry at least if
he were entreated so to do,"
"July xij., 1854.
"Dear Sir Thomas Acland,
" You will I think acknowledge that I am not
wont to be intrusive or exigeant, especially in the matter
of correspondence when I address a person whose time
is of such value as your own. But an Old Man looks over
the Sea where the Black Rock holds in stern imprison-
ment the Soul of the Widemouth Wrecker, until ' the Rope
of Sand is spun,' ^ and his wailing inquiry of ' any answer
from Killerton ? ' comes to me ever and anon like the
Squawk of a wounded Sea. Lord Ashburton has sold
to one Llewellyn the Filleigh Estate at a vast profit and
if his Remembrance of the Major were eleemosynary so
that it bore another name it would be received."
To Dr. F. G. Lee, in acknowledgment of his Newdigate
Prize Poem, 'The Martyrs of Vienne and Lyons.'
"July 12, 1854.
"Allow me to express my earnest thanks to you for the
pleasure which you have enabled me to enjoy in the
' Compare Hawker's Poem, ' Featherstone's Doom.'
232 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
perusal of your beautiful Poem. Said I, as an old Prize-
man, when I read it : ' The ancient spirit is not dead ; old
times, methinks, are breathing here.'
" But why in rhymeless verses ? You, too, who can rule
the sound so well. It may be that I rather eschew the
metre from horror at the false fame of that double-dyed
thief of other men's brains — John Milton, the Puritan —
one-half of whose lauded passages are, from my own know-
ledge, felonies committed in the course of his reading on
the property of others ; and who was never so rightly
appreciated, as by the publisher, who gave him fifteen
pounds for the copyright of his huge larcenies, and was a
natural loser by the bargain.
" You ask me for my criticism. Well, the difficult part,
the beginning from ' Quivering his golden shafts,' to ' the
dark blue vault of Heaven,' is a fine pictorial passage : a
landscape by Guido, if he ever painted one.
"Again: 'Levelled the billows of Gennesareth,' is a
majestic line. It called up in my mind a vision of Him,
the Master, with His lifted hand, when He said to the
storm, ' Hush ! be mute.'
"But—
" ' Aiigel forms ^ leaving their courts on high,
Came down, at His behest, to strengthen her,
And on their ramboiv-piniofts^ bear her soul ; '
this troubles me. Angels have no wings : not a single
feather. Whensoever in the Old Testament or the New
Testament they actually appear, they are expressly said to
be ' young men in white garments : ' not to be distinguished
by the patriarchs from other youthful guests, and so enter-
tained at unawares. Are you not instructed that the alb
of the Primal Church, girdled, was an exact copy of the usual
garments worn by angels when they communed with men ?
ANGELS HAVE NO WINGS 233
" Did you never hear the legend of the man who died,
and whose soul came back after his wife had besought St.
Stephen, and who related his journey to a place where a
concourse of persons assembled all in white, and a young
man, in a deacon's alb, came to him and announced that
he might return, and he did so ? Gretser, De Sancta Cruce,
tells the tale. Read it in the Bodleian.
" Wings, moreover, are to me destructive of all poetry of
motion from place to place. They imply effort. The
angels glide on the chariots and horses of their own desires.
One in Syria is fain to be in Egypt, and immediately is
there ; just as we think in one scene of a distant spot, and
at once our minds behold it without consciousness of the
space between.
" No, no, angels have not one feather. Michael Angelo,
the inspired, neither carved nor drew a single wing ; save
once, when he portrayed the Annunciation in the Blessed
Virgin's Room, and then as an obvious delicacy of design.
True, the prophetic imagery is abundant in feathers —
symbolic every one. But the actual angels are real exist-
ing people, who walk and live and move in calm unalter-
able youth ; who speak in their unearthly language, although
their voices do not move the air ; who pass among us, and
the grass bends not where they tread.
" The portraiture of the Church is very graphic, nie
judice, and very good : and I congratulate you, as a brother
Prizeman, on that indelible 'white stone' in a man's career
— your Oxford prize.
" My race is well nigh run. Except a wife, who is and
has been the sole solace of my worn existence, I have no
companion. A son and daughter I have none. ... I am
twenty-five miles from a town or bookseller, with neither
mail, road, nor train ; nor even carrier nearer than that ;
and only fastened to the far world by the fibre of a Daily
234 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
Post, granted by Lord Lonsdale as a special compassion
to my loneliness. But then I have the Severn Sea for my
lawn ; and cliffs, the height of the Great Pyramid, build
me in."
To Rev. W. D. Anderson.
"July xiij., — 54.
\Re his wife's money affairs.]
" My Dear Sir,
" Many years ago, or rather in 1850, said Patteson
to me — 'You must pay this money, or swears he will
pursue you until he has sequestrated your living, and utterly
ruined you. You cannot assuage his revenge but by pay-
ment.' I agreed, and paid him. ' But,' said I to Patteson,
' I am now 50 yrs. old. I have undergone a great deal of
anguish and loss. But I have always seen that howsoever
my enemies may triumph over me for a time, God always
fulfils the prophecy, 'When thine enemies perish thou
shalt see it,' God has a thousand times rewarded those
who have dealt kindly with me, and requited those who
have wronged me, said I — I feel sure I shall see that man
smitten and cut down for his guilt towards poor Mrs.
Hawker and me.' But I did not think it would
have been so soon. The crimes committed by that
Wretched Man are more than twenty Gaols can atone
for. I will tell you — I cannot write — one day the
dark history.
" And now let me say that I deem you have acted most
rightly in the Ch. Rate Matter. Let the ground we take
be this: 'Thy money perish with thee!' It shall not
enter the Sanctuary, for it is the offering of dogs, an
accursed thing. Be the horror of Achan's wedge upon the
Dissenters' Oblation."
TURKISH AFFAIRS 235
To the same.
" Novr. xxij., 1854.
" My Dear Sir,
"Your autograph on the Paper assures me that
you exist and can write, but it would have given me more
pleasure to have heard from you in reply to two or three
letters of my own to you. How fast my Prophecies of the
Fate of Turkey and of England, too, are fulfilling. Not all
the Heretics that ever snuffled falsehood through their
noses can save this guilty land. Enclosed I send you
memda. about the ways and means which now afflict me
sorely and sadly too. Our Brute Beasts of Chaw Bacons
have been signalising their principles by drinking health
and success to the Czar ! ! Old D. (a neighbouring Parson)
is failing fast. He lies in bed . . . quite prepared to damn
* all people that on Earth do dwell,' and having chosen
his place of Burial in the Porch — the invariable position
allotted in Antiquity to an Excommunicated Priest.
" That wretched woman at ! But if, like Jehu, you
shout, ' Throw her down,' there will only look out to you
Two or Three Eunuchs."
To Rev. W. West.
"Jan. xiii., 1855.
. . . "With regard to the Papal Bull [on the Immacu-
late Conception], perhaps you may be surprised to hear
that I do not concur in your disapproval of its issue. First
of all, there is something very striking in the Fact that
while the surrounding World is convulsed with human
Passions, and his own earthly throne trembling underneath
his tread, the Old Man at the Tomb of the Apostles utterly
forgets ' the things that are seen,' and seeks to satisfy and
soothe the Dwellers in the invisible World by Confession
236 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
of a dogma fraught with personal Danger. Then with
regard to the Dogma itself, of course I need only remind
you that the Dominicans, who would not assert freedom
from Adam's taint in Her whom I have called in print long
ago 'The Blended Mother,' yet they acknowledged Her
Born Sinless. St. Thomas could only allege to the
contrary a metaphoric argument from Exodus, cap : ult : —
' Postguam cunctaperfecta sunt operuit nubes Tabernaculuin
testimonii et Gloria Domini implevit illud^ John Keble
once told me that The Nature, Rank and Power of the
Blessed Virgin were especially revealed to the Church by
authentic evidence about the Time of St. Bernard.^ More-
over take the corporeal argument. He was built from Her
Veins, That which She was He was. All the while from
conception to Birth one stream of Blood circled thro' the
Hearts of Both — one pulse beat — one system of nerves,
fibrous ducts, Flesh, arteries, skin, blended Both — Until
Born He and His Mother were as in a Mould one Mass.
Her Substance was the Quarry wherein was shaped the
Marble God. •.• That which He was, she was. But it is
inquired, At what time was She hallowed into utter
Holiness ? What was the adjudgment of Antiquity
hereon ? i. The Forefathers held that She had as it were
a Logos. And hence Three Lections from the 24 Ch. of
Ecclesiasticus,and from Ch. viii., 22 v., &c., of Proverbs, were
alloted to Her Feasts in the Service Books (^Cf. here my
Diagram within). Their very Legend of Her Conception
from Joachim's Kiss at the Gate, true or false, attested
their Tenet as to Her Purity fr[om] Or[iginal] Sin. Again
Her Body saw not corruption, but like Her Son's after
death went up glorified. Whereas even Enoch and Elijah,
although caught up into Paradise, must, because of the
Adamic Blood, descend once more to prophecy the End,
' In his MS. note-books he writes, "Keble told me this, Sep. vi, , 1845."
THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION 237
and then undergo the universal penalty of sinful Birth, and
die. So, too, the Promise in the Pleasaunce excluded the
Seed of Adam as a Source of The Restorer, and expressly-
limited his Origin to ' The Woman alone.' ' Inimicitias
ponain inter Te (Serpentem) et mulierem : et semen tuuin et
semen illius : ipsa conteret caput tuum.' The pith and
marrow of the total question would seem to be : whereas all
concur in the sinlessness of the Hallowed Mother, and the
necessity that the Sources of that Blood which was one
day to flow for the remission of Sin should be utterly
devoid of Taint, the sole point to be determined is When ?
was this Miracle wrought ? And it does seem most con-
sonant with God's works and ways that this consecra-
tion should begin immediately as Her Soul glided from
The Hands of The Angel into Her Mother's Womb. Be
very sure, whether She had a Logos or not, that more than
common care was taken in the choice and structure of The
Virgin's soul. ^ Dat formam materiae Anima!' My
thought is that that Soul came into Life from the Hands
of the Father of Spirits Sinless and strong : that it was
carried by the angels into Anna's Womb ; and that there,
as it blended with the first faint fibrous mould of the Child
Mary, it extinguished therein the fire and the fuel of
original Sin for ever. Mark also that immaculacy is not
per se Deification. We do not worship the Son of Man
because He was without Sin, but because He was God
also. What an age we live in ! The Demoniac sins. Pride
and Malignity, are the predominant iniquities of these
Times. Denison and his adversaries to wit. Not that He
is sound. His Doctrine of a mere spiritual Presence 'divides
the Persons,' as an old Heresy did. The Real Presence
fitly interpreted signifies the actual and complete, the
Total and the Personal advent to the Altar of the One Xt :
and this I see Denison denies. But that an Archbishop, a
238 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
nominee of a King's Harlot, should appear as the Satanic
accuser of his Brethren, is more that I could bear. And
then the War of which I have always foretold the existing
issue. Read the 17th v. of the Vlth Ch. of the H Book
of Kings. Read, too, the Xth Ch. of the Book of Daniel,
and then tell me What Host or Prince from on high will
encamp round about an army which protests against the
very existence of Angels and smites for Mahound. See
you not how the Maozzim, the Scythian Fiends of the
Forts, fight for the Russ ?
" ' Is it the shout of Storms that rends the Sky?
The rush of many a whirlwind from his lair ?
Or be the fierce Maozzim loose on high,
The Old Gods of the North, The Demons of the air ? ' '
And now I pray you write me, and that soon, and,
" Believe me,
" My dear Sir,
"Yours faithfully,
"R. S. Hawker."
The dogma of the Immaculate Conception was pro-
mulgated by Pope Pius IX, in 1854. The idea had
appeared more than once in Hawker's verse, as for instance
in his poem, 'The Lady's Well.'
" A lovely Mother, meek and mild,
From blame and blemish free."
The fact that the Pope's ratification of this doctrine
drew from him expressions of sympathy, must not be
taken to mean too much. His theology, in fact, is
inseparable from his poetry, and is not to be judged in
the cold light of logic.
He could not admire a man or an idea without some
' This is the first stanza of his own poem * Baal-Zephon.'
REVKRSE Ol' MKDAl. WORN i;V K. S. IIAWKKR.
TIk 1k;u1 i- llKit of l'.>l<^- I'in- 1-^- 'i"'' 'I"-" '':"'■ 3lli r>c< ., 1S5J
MI'hM. WORN l;\ R. -. ll.WVKKR I\ li.'N.M R < <V
IMMAi M \ I I". I I '\CI 11 I-\.
A GOLD MEDAL 239
outward symbol of his admiration, and accordingly he wore
the medal shown in the illustration. It is said to have
been made out of a nugget of gold sent to him from
California by a sailor saved from a wreck at Morwenstow.
The design seems to have been suggested by an engraving
described in The Lamp for i Sept. 1855.
To Rev. W. West.
" Jany. xxiii., 1855.
"My Dear Sir,
"Thank you very earnestly for your prompt
reply. Sometimes it is a solace to say with Conrad, ' I
am not all deserted on the Main ! " Once or twice you
have mentioned themes of thought as unworked which
have been to me and to my MSS. as Household Words for
years. But then I have used ever since 1835 as my daily
manual the Noble work of St. T. Aquinas, the title of which
I transcribe with another possibly unknown to you con-
taining a Floral list. I urgently advise you to get Aquinas,
the Hive of The World's Honey of all ages. Thus it came
down —
" i. The Thoughts and Words of the Angels delivered
to the Fore-fathers of the Ch.
" ii. Framed into language by The Master of the
Sentences.
" iii. Condensed and arranged by Aquinas in the above
Work.
" iv. Derived thence by Dante.
"v. Filched from the Italian by John Milton — that
Puritan Thief.
" vi. Transfused piecemeal into Modern Poetry and
Prose.
240 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
" Hardly one fine thought but it had this lineage and
Descent. Pray get the Book, and then tell me so. Write
to say you are better. Thank Raphael I am. Do you
know MacCabe, Editor of the Weekly Telegraph,or Hemans,
who writes therein from Rome ? "
To Rev. W. D. Anderson.
"Feby. xv., 1855.
"My Prophecy delivered in these Churches in August
last has caused talk. All that has befallen England was
then foretold by me in words. And more still, I predict
the utter and speedy extinction of England as a great
Power. Her 300 years of Dissent, the largest allotted time
for any Heresy to endure, is now well nigh told out.
Down, Down, Down. The beginning of the end. Why
should England stand ? Who is there to come down with
succour ? What angel could arrive with duties to perform
for that large Blaspheming Smithery, once a great Nation,
now a Forge for Railways — A Kind of Station ! "
" Morwenstow. March viij., 1855.
" Dear Lady Acland,
"Through God's great mercy my dear Wife has
passed through this fierce Winter unscathed and she de-
sires me to say that she looks forward again to the
happiness of seeing you here once m.ore. Another wreck
at Sandy Mouth — a French vessel from Rochefort to
which place I have this day accomplished after some
labour a letter in French (of Stratford School by Bow) at
Tregidgo's request who came up from Bude about it. Two
Bodies thus far on Shore one at Poughill one at Kilk-
hampton — none here yet — a little bag with a few francs
washed in fastened by a cord to a piece of wood to float
THE BOOK POST 241
it, a trait of French contrivance. We are on the watch all
day — mournful work."
To Rev. W, D. Anderson.
"Aug. 27th, 1855.
"O'Neil mayor may not describe to you our Piscina.
He stood before it some time. Whether he saw it or not,
I cannot decide. The Bookpost is a good institution. It
has brought me Tennyson's new poem from the Author,
Maskell's Three Vols, (guinea, cash), etc., and is going to
bring me Miss L. Twining's Work on Xtian Art — All Gifts.
Yule ^ has taken a villa at Melhuach (the vale of the Lark),
near the sea. Hence the fine sunsets lately. His father
was with Nelson when he died. Heroic blood ! He is
introduced in the famous Picture at Greenwich of the
Death of Nelson. It is Yule's Sire who brings the Flag
for Nelson to lie on, and says, ' Banners beseem the
Brave.' "
To Richard Twining, Esq.
" I add also a sketch of
my Font for Miss Twining,
full 1000 years old.
"Octr. XXV., 1855.
"My Dear Sir,
" I will not write a cheque for our usual amount in
Tea without a Transcript from my MS. Book — for I claim
access to your criticism as a friend. Bude has been so full
this year that our usual visitants have been multiplied
many fold. You will be glad to hear that Sir Thomas
Acland and Lady A., so long an invalid, spent Saturday
last here with us, the first visit the latter has made for
months, and both enjoyed our Cliffs and shore happily.
' The Rev. J. C. D. Yule, a friend of Hawker's.
Q
242 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
"Will you have the kindness to present the inclosed
Drawing to Miss L. Twining, in my name, and with my
best regards. It is of a Piscina, discovered this year by
me in the South Wall of my Chancel, where it has been
hidden by Mortar full 300 years, and existed there before
that date full 500 years more. It preserves the old
Piscinal type most accurately, which was the Horn of the
Hebrew Altar, grooved and hollowed to receive and convey
the redundant Blood and Water of the Sacrifices into a
Cistern or Channel beneath. What would a lithographic
transfer of such a drawing cost ? I have very many most
rare things of the kind, unique, I believe, in England."
The " transcript from his MS. book" was as follows : —
"L. S. D.
" It was the Day, when the Thrones and the Princedoms
had glided, each from his orb, to burn with Tidings of their
Errand, amid the conscious Light of God : and Arioch, the Angel
of England, was there ! Now, in those Realms, there is neither
Voice, nor Utterance, nor any sound. For the thoughts of a
Spirit are Things : and their minds beam out, and shine around
them, like breath visible, or Air ! So when the Prince Guardian
of the Islands of Japhet came, and stood still, a thick, dull, heavy,
Sense^'and Imagery, of Sin and Shame, flowed forth from his
Presence and troubled the Angel-host ! His message glared
aloud : and it meant : ' Gold ! . . . Gold ! . . . Gold ! my
multitudes yearn : they pant : they wrestle for Gold : They will
worship none other God ! ' . . . There was a sudden Gloom
and deep. . . . The Light paused. . . . Space grew shadowy
and void . . . and then, there flowed in, once more, as it were
some vast River of Radiance, alive until every ethereal Breast
was aware of an Oracle, an answer, and a Doom ! But Arioch
felt that a strange purpose thrilled within him : and a new and
another Will ! So He turned, and he went, upon the Chariots
and the Horses of his own Desires : and where he sought to be,
THE LIFE OF A BEE 243
he was, in a moment, and at once ! . . . He stood amid the
Central Fires, cold and harmless ! . . . Vassal-Spirits, murky,
many, and fierce gathered, and paused before him, for their
Errand and Work. A Breath delivered it : But it was a Strong,
deep stern Fate for the Saxons of the Sea ! punishment and
pain ! ... So They, the Swart and Evil Ones, rushed to fulfil
their natural work, boundingly ! They lifted the molten Pavement
of an Orient Sea : They reared it into vast and lofty Arches,
embossed with Hills, and ribbed and groined with tracery of the
red, red Gold : until at last the Brow of their Structure shOne
above the Waters, an Austral Island of the Main ! . . . Anon,
the keels of England, demon-led, grated on the Sand. Again,
they dragged from their native caverns the ruddy metal
of the mine : they welded it into the Foundations of Rocky
Mountains ; they scattered it beside lonely Rivers ; and in far-
away Deserts of the Occident ; wherein they well knew that the
lineage of Japhet were soon to tread. . . . Then they ceased. . . .
Home ! to the Depth once more ! Home — But grim and ghastly
was the smile, that quivered on their smouldering minds, as they
thought, ' We have sown the Doom ! We have planted the
Curse ! Ho ! Ho ! for the Harvest ! ' So when Even was come
the Lord of the Vineyard saith unto his Servant, ' Call the
Labourers, and give them their Hire ! ' But when they came to
reckon : Blood, was the Price of Pardon : Grace, could have
been bartered for Prayer : Penitence might have bought Bene-
diction : But Gold ? the Glut, the vaunt of Gold : He said unto
them, 'Whose is this Image and Superscription?' They say,
' The Demon's ! ' "
"R. S. H."
" Octr. xix., 1855.
•' Dear Sir Thomas Acland,
" The natural life of a Bee lasts only one Year.
It is therefore no cruelty as sonne men wrongly say to
rend away the honey spoil. Mrs. Hawker proffers for
Lady Acland's acceptance a little Honey Comb. It was
gathered from the Heath and Furze Blossoms of Henna-
244 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
cliff; and when our Bees, on forage, are caught there by a
sudden Storm, they stoop down, gather up a small pebble
or stone for ballast in the wind, and so glide safely home
to their hive, where they drop it at the door. This is one
of the bits of natural History which one gathers from an
out-of-door life by the Sea."
To Rev. W. D. Anderson.
"Novr. viij., 1855.
" My Dear Sir,
" We are very glad and relieved to hear of Mrs.
Anderson's safety, and of your vast boy. When he gets
older and quarrels with himself there will be a split, as
with the Yankee youth, and he will go off into twins after
all. We went mirabile dictu to Bude on the 2nd to dine
with the Baronet [Sir Thomas Acland] and his lady.
Nothing could exceed their kindness to Mrs. Hawker. I
don't mean otherwise to me, but to her, pointed."
To the same.
"April vij., 1856.
..." You will be sorry to hear that altho' Lent is over
The Demon still worries my Flock. Two lambs misborn
among the Hogs, and one on her back yesterday with her
eye picked out by Ravens. I read your missive, the North
Devon Gazette^ and I am much obliged to you. By the
way, there is in Bideford a Man called Capern,^ a letter
' Mr. John Lane has an interesting reminiscence of this Devonshire worthy.
" Over twenty years ago," he writes, " I paid a visit to Edward Capern, the
North Devon Poet-postman, at Braunton, where he was then living on his pen-
sion. I well remember his showing me appreciative letters from Tennyson,
Kingsley, Landor, Froude, Longfellow, Elihu Burritt, and Hawker. We made
it out that Capern must have carried the news of my birth in 1854 from my
grandmother's house at West Putford, where I was born, to my father at
Buckland Brewer. Capern's round was from Buckland Brewer to Bideford,
and he told me that he composed most of his poems whilst on his rounds.
There is an excellent portrait of him by Edgar Williams in the Public Library
i-.nw AKh cAi'i'.KN, I 111-: I'dNiM AN-roi; I I'l-- iii-,\oN>iiiki-:
I'l-.'jii a paiiitiiii; hv II illiaiit ll'iiii^cfY. in the /<ossiSsio)i of Auu-yinan J. II'. Xair.i
'o/l^idejord
THE POSTMAN POET 245
Carrier, a poet, and it is said by good authority a real one.
This Man, described in the London Papers as a Labourer,
is favourably reviewed in Frazer's Mag., in the Critic, and
by Mr. W. Savage Landor. He does not seem much
of Bideford. I remember last year going into the room with Mr. William
Watson to see it. Mr, Narraway, of Bideford, also has a portrait of him in
the character of postman, by Widgery. He was supposed to resemble Oliver
Goldsmith. Among the subscribers to Capern's first volume were Tennyson,
Landor, Froude, Dickens, and Lord Palmerston."
The fact that Mr. Lane's birth was heralded by a poet was surely prophetic !
Mxcenas himself, had he lived in Vigo Street, might have been proud of this
distinction.
The following letter, written by Landor to Mr. T. L. Pridham, of Bide-
ford, is of interest as giving an authoritative contemporary opinion of the
postman's poetry : —
"March i6th, 1856.
"My Dear Sir,
"I have been reading Capern's 'Poems ' with equal attention and
delight ; few poets have written two such noble verses as those two in page
20, and page 168 to the end of the poems is equal to the best of Burns ; the
last stanza in page 186 is equal to this. The stanza also in 180 is grand in
conception and expression.
"Very truly yours,
" Walter Savage Landor."
Elihu Burritt, in reviewing Capern's poems, wrote : — "He is the Robert
Burns of Devonshire, and we think that some of his verses equal anything the
Scotch bard ever wrote in the way of touching pathos and beauty."
Capern died in 1894, and was buried at Heanton Punchardon, near
Northam. The expenses of the funeral were defrayed by the Baroness
Burdett-Coutts. On his tombstone is the following inscription : —
"Edward Catern,
THE postman poet.
Born at Tiverton, 21 Jan. 18 19,
Died at Braunton, 4 June 1894."
O Lark-like Poet: carol on,
Lost in dim light, an unseen trill I
We, in the Heaven where you are gone.
Find you no more, but hear you still.
Alfred Austin,
The Poet-Laureate."
Above the inscription is fixed the bell which Capern used to ring to
announce his arrival when on his rounds.
246 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
appreciated in Bideford, but this is in his favour. I wish
you would find him out. Say to him that I wish to read his
poems — either MS. or in print. He can send to me by the
Coach. Tell him how, and let me know all you can about
him. But don't be led by Bideford opinions. They
praised Kingsley quite enough for me. . . .
" Our gay wedding is to be the 24th of April. One of
the Bridesmaids has had the small-pox ever since the reign
of Queen Anne. Our Rural Dean (very rural) was here
last week. He paced the Nave up and down — grunted —
blew his nose, and withdrew. I, as a faithful Protestant,
had a right of private judgment which I exercised accord-
ingly, without, however, communicating the result to him,
altho' it related solely to himself."
Hawker evidently cultivated the acquaintance of the
postman-poet, for some years later, in 1862, he writes to a
friend : —
..." I send you a letter from a Man who has made
some noise in the North of Devon, Capern of Bideford, the
Rural Postman. He has written some verses which have
at all events obtained the solid distinction of an Annuity
from the Queen thro' Lord Palmerston."
To Rev. W, D, Anderson.
"April XV., 1856.
" I don't like your account of yourself I have several
times fainted quite away in Church, but then I had reasons
to account for it, which you had not, thank God. But
therefore^ as your nerves are not shaken, so much the
worse. Take care — Remember Lord Bacon's words, ' He
who is married and is a Father hath given hostages.'
Realize this, as I do. When I reflect, and I did two days
ago when I met the risk of standing by a Typhus Fever
A VILLAGE COBDEN 247
Bed, I say, only one person in all the earth can be touched
by my removal."
To the same,
"April XX., 1856.
" Your pony is in many respects a resurrection of
Fanny's youth. I have been so interrupted that I have not
been able to ride her as I meant — and I have managed one
Fall. Just at our Back Gate — trying to open it — her heels
were getting out over the brink where the rustic fence is,
and I, checking her and urging her at the same time,
just like you, she reared, and came back, I under, she upon
me with her four legs in the air. But no harm to her, and
to me only the shake. But don't, for worlds, let anyone
know this, so that it can get to Mrs. H. I repeat, the
fault was entirely my own. And strange ! it completes her
similitude, for Fanny turned over exactly so the second
time I mounted her."
To the same.
"Octr. 7, 1856.
" And now let me ask you. How came you to send here
to me such a vile audacious Snob as N ? Not 24
hours in the Parish before he began to scheme to alter
our Post. Without one word to me or to any other
Person in the Parish, because he is a sleeping partner in
the Tripe and Sausage Manufactory in Tooley St., and
therefore must advise by every post the price of Horse-
flesh. He, the meek Saint, attempts to interfere, and
perhaps to lose our daily post altogether. He did the
same to you. The very reason that this letter of mine must
go to Exeter, on its way to you, instead of going via
Holsworthy to your house to-morrow, — is the meddling
248 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
Idiot you and Yule have sent here. Now I must beg that
you send your Cart and Horses to fetch his furniture next
week. Every Servant a Dissenter. He and She not yet
baptised. It certainly does not say much for the dis-
crimination of your neighbourhood that you did not find
out his real name. It is Cobden or Bright, but in a village
grade. Haste, haste,"
To Rev. W. D. Anderson.
"Octr, xiij., 1856.
" I restore to you Mr. Harvey's letter, which is as full of
fallacies as it can hold. If the Church is in a ' sad state of
dirt and neglect,' it must be from a sinful denial of that
debt due from his and others hands, which he ought to ex-
haust every legal effort to levy and enforce y^rj'/ before any
other alternative is even conceived or proposed.
" If you do not wait to consider whether funds for repair
are raised by a Rate which is a duty or a subscription
which is not, you simply break your ordination vow, which
is to enforce obedience to the Laws of God and Man.
Not only would a subscription be a tacit release of an
existing and a future bond to pay and levy rate, but such
a measure would be a flagrant violation of the Fourteenth
Article of our Churchy and be s.^ precious a piece of Popery
as you could well commit. I advise you to copy, send, and
urge that 14th Article as a stern and graphic reply to all
his Books. — And, in haste, I remain, with our kind regards.
" Yrs. faithfully,
"R. S. Hawker.
" Mind, I seriously 2,ndi strongly urge you to refer Harvey
to that 14th Article, and to take your stand upon it."
CHAPTER XV
Literary Work. 1852-1862
Contributions to ' Household Words ' — (Dickens does pay)
— ' Notes and Queries ' — ' Willis's Current Notes '
— ' Arscott of Tetcott ' — " Numyne" — ' Baal-Zephon '
— " RuDis Indigestaque Moles " — Chattertonian Methods
— Letter to Blackwoods' — Blight's 'Ancient Crosses,'
ETC. — " A Blundering Failure " — Musical Young Ladies —
' Sir Beville ' — An Audacious Plagiarism — Tre, Pol and
Pen — Tabooed by * The Times.'
Hawker's literary output up to 1850 consisted of seven
small volumes of verse, namely, 'Tendrils' (1821),
'Records of the Western Shore' (1832, Second Series
1836), 'Reeds Shaken with the Wind' (1843, 'Second
Cluster' 1844), ' Ecclesia' (1840), and 'Echoes from Old
Cornwall' 1846). Before 1852 he does not seem to have
contributed much to periodicals, but the quotation of the
Trelawny Ballad in Household Words that year brought him
under the notice of Dickens, On 30 Novr. 1852 he writes
to his brother, — " I am in cordial correspondence with
Dickens, and I am to contribute to Household Words, and
' cannot send MSS. too often.' There is also in the last No. of
Chambers' Edinbiirgh Journal a paper in eulogy of the
Vicar of Morwenstow, written by Hurton, the Author of
' From Leith to Lapland.' I am in receipt, too, of daily
249
250 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
letters of encouragement to write, and of praise. But too
late — too late."
About the same time he began to contribute to Notes and
Queries, though, on 27 Deer. 1852, he writes to his friend
Mr. West, " I do not send more than I can help to N. & Qs.
When I discovered that the Editor, after professing imparti-
ality, was a Boundless Protestant, and that he thought fit to
keep MSS. which I sent to N. & Q. for some large work on
Folklore of his own, and what did go into his paper was
curtailed, I ceased to intrude save now and then."
In 1853 the Editor of Willis's Current Notes, a rival
then to Notes and Queries, applied to him for information
about Trelawny (see his reply on page 27), and he began to
write for that paper also. A list of his various contributions
to these papers will be found in the bibliography at the end
of this work.
On 13 Deer. 1853, he writes to the Editor of Willis's,
with reference to the song 'Arscott of Tetcott' (see his
previous letter on page 27). " When you print it, pray send
me a few copies of the Song in type. A Sort of flysheets of
the letterpress apart from the Notes. Sir W. Molesworth,
from whom I have heard, approves of the publication, and
has directed his Steward to supply any thing in MS.
among the Tetcott papers." ' Firm was their Faith ' {cf.
Notes and Queries of Deer. loth) is from a Vol. of mine,
published by Masters in 1846, called 'Echoes from Old
Cornwall,' which did not, does not sell, but contains Poetry
that I think will be appreciated one day When I am gone."
To the same.
" Deer, xxiij., — 53.
" Dear Sir,
" I have received the Slips of * Arscott of Tetcott,
but I cling to the propriety of my own Revise — e.g., There
'ARSCOTT OF TETCOTT' 251
is a great deal more consciousness of improper usage in the
Go-to-meeting abbreviation of G — than in all the ex-
clamations at length of ' Good God ' that ever escaped a
fiery Foxhunter in the course of his Runs.^
" Neither can I congratulate your Setter-up on his
accuracy. There is no such place as Pencarron, whereas I
perfectly remember correcting the same misprint into the
well-known name of the seat of the Molesworths.
"Pen Carrow,^ The Hill of the Deer, as it signifies in
old Cornish.
*' However,
" I remain,
" Yrs. very truly,
" R. S. Hawker."
It is evident from these letters that Hawker never claimed
the authorship of ' Arscott of Tetcott' It was a traditional
song of the country side, of which many variations still
exist. He merely gave it a more literary form, and he
did not himself include it in any published volume.
The following letter to Mr. West gives some interesting
details of his literary experiences : —
" Morwenstow. Feby. xiii., 1854.
"My Dear Sir,
"A reply from London to my letter of inquiry
for you enables me to say : i. That 'Ecclesia' is entirely
out of Print. It was published for me by Rivington, who
delivered an account of his Stewardship wherein I was
1/6 in his debt. ii. ' Reeds Shaken,' &c., issued by Burns,
' This refers to one of his lines in the song,
" Bold Princess and Madcap — good God ! how they went ! "
^ " They rode from Pencarrow, not fearing a wet coat,
To take their diversion with Arscott of Tetcott 1 "
252 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
also sold out, i.e., the First Cluster, iii. * The Second
Cluster,' published by Mozley of Derby, may be had, but
all its contents are reprinted in ' Echoes.' Mrs. Hawker's
Translations : i. ' Follow me,' from Guido Gorres (Burns),
is also exhausted ; and, ii. ' The Manger of the Holy
Night,' may still be had from Masters. Now all these,
with last of all, ' Echoes,' have sold, and well. I never
was so simple as to suppose that a Bookseller would depart
with a Shilling of current coin to me, but it is absolutely
true that I have been compelled to pay the Printers' Bill
for many of my little vols. ; and poor Mrs. H., being
promised by Masters lO;^ for 'The Manger,' which she
had intended for a charitable purpose . . . every now &
then rec<l. a parcel from him containing his new publica-
tions, among others a new version of the penitential
Psalms. She thought this very attentive, never having
ordered one of these precious productions. At the end of
the year came his Acct., wherein she reed. Credit for her
10;^, but Mr. Masters, his presents, had brought her in
debt a balance of 2)£ odd ! !
"And now about Dickens,^ who by-the-bye does pay.
Mine are 'Aunt Mary,' a Xmas Carol for 1853; 'The
Gauger's Pocket,' prose ; ' The Light of other Days,' prose,
a chip ; and Mrs. H.'s Translation from Toni in the No.
{o{ Household Words) for Feby. 4, 1854, called 'Too late.'
He sent her for this £i. 10. O., which she gave at once to
a Fund in progress to feed our .Starving Poor. I inclose
some print of mine from ' The Ecclesiastic,' to be returned,
for I have no copy. Did your Father write ' Rome under
the Popes & Csesars ' ? " [See p. 229.]
Mr. West wrote in Notes and Queries an article referring
to Hawker's poem, ' A Legend of the Hive,' and quoted
' In another letter he writes, " You will read in No. 143 of Hous!:hold tVords
my ' Aunt Mary,' for which C. Dickens gave nne one Guinea."
HOW TO BECOME A WITCH 253
from Howell's * Parley of Beasts ' a similar legend.
Hawker writes to him on 13 Jan. 1855 : —
" My Dear Sir,
" I never saw or heard of the abstruse vols, from
which you quote as sources in A^. & Q., until I read their
names in your Article. A Book published by Hone
mentions the story, and the charm of the Bread is told of
among the Crones of Cornwall to this day. There is
another horrible usage related to me by an old man.
'You must hide & steal the Bread, and the next Midnight
take it in your hand, and go three times round the Church
from Sunset to Sunrise (the points), the third time there
will meet you a vast Toad ; you must put the Bread into
his mouth and then he will make you a Witch,' "
In March 1855, he writes to the Editor of Willis's : —
" Recovered from a sad illness, I again write. The
Verses I now inclose, * Baal-Zephon,' contain my own
solution of the War [Crimean]. Let my own name be
annexed.
" I have a great deal under pen, which I will send you.
Have you a list of your chief literary Readers? I am
appointed Secretary for Cornwall by the Society of
Antiquaries, Somt. House. But I know nothing of them.
Have they a vehicle in print? Who is their Publisher,
and who their Stationer ? I send you a sea song (' The
Midwatch,') about which inquiry was made in your Notes
of March 25.^ My wife, who knows all music, I believe,
that ever was published, recites it to me. Her Father
' Only a fragment of ' The Midwatch ' survives in liis mss., as follows : —
"When 'tis Night, and the ]Midwatch is come,
And chilling Mists hang o'er the darken'd Main,
Tiien Sailors think of tiieir far distant home,
,\nd on those Friends they ne'er may see again.
" But when the Fight's hegun, each hastens to his Gun :
Should any Thoughts of these come o'er his mind,"
254 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
used to sing it about the end of last Century. It was
popular in Lord Howe's time (The famous first of June).
I insert a Bellrhime or two.
" And in a day or two I will send you some prose that I
wish to fix in type for future days. Now pray write me
by return of Post."
To Rev. W. West.
" How I wish for some Publication which would give me
free access to its columns, and thro' which I could pour
out a Mass of MSS. notes and Thoughts inscribed in my
Solitude of 20 years here by the Sea. I have discovered
among other Things a New and another Element : The
Atmosphere of God and Angels. I have named it
' Numyne.' Remember I claim the Word."
In reply to a suggestion that he should become a
Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries he says, "I certainly
shall not seek for any F.S.A. I abhor alphabetic titles,
and I have no money."
To the Editor of ' Willis's Current Notes. ^
"April iij., 1855.
" Dear Sir,
" More MSS. Now Numyne is one of many
Eastern Legends, which have been delivered to me.
Every word has been weighed, and is defensible, and I
cannot help thinking that such MS. will infuse fresh blood
into your Notes. You may put my name at full length if
you think fit, and leave reply and defence if necessary to
me. Do you exclude all theology, or do you admit such
themes as the ' Heresy of the Russ ' — a topic from which
all seem to have shrunk throughout the War } Yet as a
key to events, and as a source of policy and illustration, no
"NUMYNE" 255
subject more demands discussion. See how they nibble
at it in N. & Q's. ! "
In another letter he refers to his article on " Numyne " as
" recondite au Ruskin notes." He coined the word to
express a favourite theory, which the following passages
from his MSS. will explain : —
" Knum, the old Sethic word for the God of the Water — thence
all Divinity was entitled Numen — thence came Nomen : thus
Nomen and Numen were interchanged. C/ 'Go Baptize in
JVom'me P. F. and S. S. or in JVumine. Therefore, Whatsoever
of the Divine Essence exists anywhere or in any Person or Thing
I (R. S. H.) name
" Numyne.
" Cf., also an original interchange of Lumen and Numen.
" Numyne.
"Now what shall link and blend the existence of God the
Trinity with the Things of Space and Time? A Sacramental
Sea of Light — An atmosphere alive with Shechinah — An Essence
that, like a Sacrament, should blend Mind and Matter, God and
Man — A Substance (Res habens quidditatem) that can inherit
the mutual Attributes of the Spiritual and Material World — An
Element so rarified, so thin, elastic, pure, that it forms the Medium
or Woof wherein the Solar Light undulates, glances and glides :
so holy and divine, that it is the native Atmosphere of Angels and
Spiritual Things, and so replete with Godhead that therewithal
The Celestial Persons can become tangible to the Senses, inso-
much that clothed in that Numyne a Man can perceive and
adore the Glory of God."
To the Editor of * Willis's Current Notes.'
"April xxiij., 1855.
" Dear Sir,
" Numyne reached me safely last night, well-
thumbed by some one.
256 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
" Baal-Zephon also came in slips, but injured by the
Corrector, e.g., in verse 4, there is no note of interrogation,
whereas I put two — one at the end of the first line, and
another at the end of the last. But worse than this, whereas
I wrote and revised in the 5th verse, Lightning-tongue, the
noun Lightning joined by a hyphen to the other noun
Tongue, wherein I of course referred to the Electric
Telegraph, your Corrector has inserted the adjective
' lightening ' (making lighter) and left out the hyphen, and
made the verse utter nonsense, utter nonsense.
" I should have thought that London would have con-
tained better officers. If it can be'corrected in time before
the issue, pray do not let me appear the writer of Trash."
His poem ' Baal-Zephon ' appeared in Willis's Notes for
April 1855, with a paragraph on ' Churchyards,' which is
embodied in 'Footprints.'
In Willis's Notes for May 1855 was a query signed
" Pictor" as to the Jewish Festival referred to in St. John
VII. 37. The Editor wrote to Hawker on the subject, and
printed his reply, whereupon Hawker writes : —
"Junei., 1855.
"When I reed, your query quoad i\\Q Feast of Tents, I
had not the remotest idea that my reply was to appear in
type, otherwise instead of the rudis indigestaque moles
which I sent you by return of Post I should have written
with more coherence and care. But even in haste I think
I cd. not have written exactly as your demon has set me
up ; e.g., is it possible that I wrote ' to desecrate from etc'
was to sin ? I certainly must have meant to depart, &c.
But no matter. Pray in future say ' for print,' or not, as
the case may be."
The " rudis indigestaque moles " was as follows : —
THE FEAST OF TENTS 257
"At the time of this verse the Lord Messiah stood in the
cloister of Israel, which was the second Court of the Temple,
a colonnade of stately pillars surrounding an open quadrangle. It
was the octave of the Festival of Tents, which was held in Tisri,
or September, after harvest, and it began on the fifteenth day.
There then stood Jesu, around him the twelve men, the bearded
Bishops of his future church. The columns and the Court were
wreathed with bowers of green branches, from the patient palm
tree with its turbaned brow, and the willows of the water courses,
which in those days grew upright, but which after their rods had
been taken to scourge the Lord withal, drooped evermore in
memorial grief, the citron bough, heavy with fruit, and the myrtle
tree. All at once there was the shout of the trumpet, and a loud
and lifted Psalm ; it is that Ode which is now read as the twelfth
chapter of the book of Isaiah. The Levites draw near, and a
procession enters in solemn array. They have drawn water from
the brook of Siloam, which flows fast by the Oracle of God. A
priest bears it in a golden vase, and they pass on to pour it as
their usage was on the altar of holocaust — Trpwrov fnv vSiop,
i.e., water was first. They have passed through the cloister of
the men, and as their voices fade into the inner sanctuary, a deep
and solemn tone proclaims in thrilling words — ' If any man thirst,
let him come unto me, and drink ! '
"Were I a painter, I should pourtray the scene, at the right
foreground Messiah with the traditionary features of Nicephorus ;
behind him, Simon, Andrew, James and John. A pillar here and
there enwreathed ; Hebrew children bearing boughs. A willow
drooping nigh with prophetic leaves. On the left the Levite troop
disappearing with the golden pitcher in their hands. The finger
of the Lord pointing towards them, as in the act of uttering the
above summons."
Hawker added a note on Prae-Raphaelitism similar in
substance to that on pages 226 and 330 of this book.
The following letter to Mr. West refers to an article of
Hawker's, entitled, 'The Grotesque in Architecture': —
R
258 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
" St Peters Day (29 June), — 55.
" My Dear Sir,
" Thank you for yr. genial criticisms. Quoad
the grotesque within Churches, I have always doubted the
reference to any source so temporary and trivial as the
jealous rivalry of Parties secular or sacred for such
eccentricities of Architecture. My Thought has been.
When grotesque imagery exists inside I set it down as
in my note. When outside Wall or Roof, then Demons or
excommunicate Persons are meant. Gargoyles are, I
believe, intended to shew Evil Spirits disgorging the
superfluous Water of the Ch., which nevertheless cannot
cool their actual Tongue. The misery with me is that
here I have no Books. Not one Library exists on the
total Tamar-Side. I can't afford to buy, so my Sumnta
and meditation in my Chancel are the sole sources of
thought that I possess."
In 1855 he contemplated publishing another volume,
and wrote to his friend Mr. William Maskell : —
"Novr. X., 1855.
" My Dear Maskell,
" I will fulfil your suggestion, and at once put
together ' ane litel beuk ' of say 100 pages of my best
Ballads, if you will help me to a publisher. I am earnest
in this matter, and I shall be really glad if you will so
mention or introduce my name as to aid my wishes. A
Friend of mine, a Cornish Man, Editor of the Cleveland
Gazette^ in Ohio, prophesies sale in America for my verses.
Now, I will not mix up other matters with this Lydian
Letter, only our kindest regards to Mrs. Maskell. So I
remain,
"Yrs. faithfully,
" R. S. Hawker."
A CHATTERTONIAN FREAK 259
The scheme fell through, however, from lack of funds,
and this disappointment depressed him exceedingly.
[See his allusions to " a broken purpose" on pages 194-5.]
We now come to a curious instance of his Chattertonian
literary methods, and their results. In this matter dates
are important. A volume named ' Poems & Pictures,'
published in 1846, contained his ' Christ-Cross Rhyme,'
with an illustration. Next, in Notes and Queries^ for 1 1
March 1854, he writes : —
"Suffer me to reply to a question . . . about a 'Christ-
cross row.' This name for the alphabet obtained in the
good old Cornish dame-schools when I was a boy.
'■'■ In a book that I have seen there is a vignette of a monk
teaching a little boy to read, and beneath
" ' A Christ-Cross Rhyme.' "
He then quotes his own lines !
They appeared again in Willis's Current Notes, for
November 1855, with a happy emendation —
" Teach me letters A B C."
instead of
" Teach me letters, one two three."
"I utterly disapprove," he writes to the Editor, "of any
letters for ABC but Old English Capitals. They and
they only will recall to every mind the Horn-Book Criss-
cross Row. The more outi'^ they look, the more they
differ from the rest of the line, the better they will suit the
idea in every mind of a piece of their old alphabet risen as
it were from the past, and the more graphically will they
pourtray a fragment of an antique alphabet, the relique of
a School-day's Book."
We now see the sequel to Hawker's cryptic method of
26o LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
contributing the poem to Notes and Queries. A Corre-
spondent sends to Willis's Current Notes^ of January 1859,
a version of the poem, which he says, " met my eye the
very day in which I saw those of the Rev. R. S. Hawker in
C, N" " I strongly suspect," he continues, " the two
canticles are derived from a common source." Thereupon
Hawker writes to the Editor of Willis's : —
" I must request you to insert the enclosed letter verb-
atim, with Signature, &c. as it stands, in your February
Number of C. Notes. It is time to put a stop if possible
to the daring robbery perpetrated on my Brain and
pen, and that continually. I put my name to assume
the whole Contradiction publicly, that others also may
fear."
" Morwenstow. Jany xxx., 1856.
"Sir,
" I cannot allow the insinuation of your Corre-
spondent Timotheus as to some common origin of my own
' Christ-Cross Rhyme ' and that of the glaring travesty
of my verses, which he has transmitted to you,
to pass without exposure and contradiction. In the
Year 1845, ^ received from Mr. Burns, the Publisher,
a very beautiful Engraving by Dyce of a Monk teach-
ing a Boy to read, and it was the request of Mr.
Burns that I would write, for a Volume which he
was about to publish, an illustration of that Print.
I did so — I derived the thoughts and the verses of
My ' Christ-Cross Rhyme' from my own Brain, and
from that only source. It was inserted and published
by Mr. Burns in his ' Poems and Pictures,' a Volume which
issued from the Press in the Christmas Season of 1845-6.
Whosoever shall have assumed the subsequent Author-
ship of a single Thought, or a Solitary line, of my Verses
JACK CADE 261
has committed an audacious plagiarism from my recorded
Composition.
'* I remain, Sir,
Yrs. obedly.,
R. S. Hawker.
" It was bad enough to filch my thoughts and language,
but to impeach my originality to excuse the transfer is
something more."
Hawker was very sensitive, sometimes unreasonably so,
on this question of originality. If he had done a legend
into verse, he considered that he had a monopoly, not
only of the verses, but of the legend. Thus, in a letter
dated Jan. ij., 1858, he says : —
" Every year of my life, for full ten years, I have had to
write to some publisher, editor or author, to claim the
paternity of a legend, or a ballad, or a page of prose, which
others have been attempting to foist on the public as
their own. Last year I had to rescue a legendary ballad
— ' The Sisters of Glen Nectan ' — from the claims of a Mr.
H., of Exeter College. Yesterday I wrote for the January
number of Blackwood^ wherein I see published ' The Bells
of Bottreaux,' a name and legend which, if any one should
claim, I say with Jack Cade, ' He lies, for I invented it
myself!'"
In reality, the accusation against " Mr. H. " was un-
founded. He had never seen Hawker's ballad when he
wrote his poem, but took the story from Murray's Guide.
It is quite possible that Murray had obtained it from
Hawker, and the fact that Hawker originally called his
ballad 'The Sisters of Glen-Neot,' lends colour to a sug-
gestion that he transplanted the legend from St. Neot to
St. Nectan's Kieve. In his notes to this poem, and to
' The Silent Tower of Bottreaux,' he says in each case
262 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
that the local story was told him on the spot. ( Vide
' Cornish Ballads.') If this were so, he could hardly claim
to have invented the legends, or complain if other writers,
like himself, turned them to literary uses.
When he had obtained Blackwood's Magazine for
January 1858, he wrote the following letter^ to the Editor,
which is of great interest as indicating the relative propor-
tions of invention and tradition in his ballads : —
"Jany. 13, 1858.
" Sir,
"Just after I had taken my degree of B.A. in
company with a College Friend, who is now the Master of
Pembroke College, Oxford, I visited Boscastle, Tintadgel,
and the Cornish Moorlands in that District.
" My custom of turning things into rhyme had received
encouragement in the University, by the Newdigate Prize
for ' Pompeii,' which I had won in 1827. In the course of
our Tour, whatsoever germs of legend or Tale came in my
way, I forthwith put into verse, and among others, as I
confess, on very slight ground of local suggestion, I did
invent the Ballad that I enclose. The sole materials that
I gathered on the spot were, that a certain Church Tower
on the Seashore, called in reality Forrabury, but by myself
in poetic license, Bottreaux, was devoid of Bells : because
they had been lost at sea. The remainder of the Legend,
the incidents and language of the Pilot, the Captain, the
Storm ; if any Man should suppose them to be historic, or
claim them for his own use, I must encounter him in the
phrase of Jack Cade, ' He lies, for I invented them myself.'
I have had the honour to recognize my Ballad translated
into Prose in many subsequent publications : my friend
Mr. Cyrus Redding, adopted it with my permission in his
' This letter was kindly supplied by Mr. J. H. Lobban.
LETTER TO BLACKWOOD 263
Itinerary of Cornwall, published in 1842, and other Tourists
have since assumed the putative paternity of my literary
offspring, without leave. I have reprinted my ' Bottreaux
Bells ' in more than one small Volume of Verses, the last
entitled * Echoes of Old Cornwall,' in 1846 : the lines have
been set to music by more than one amateur friend : and
wheresoever I myself am known although within a rural
and remote region, there my Legend is known also —
And now. Sir, allow me to suggest that, as I have recently
had the unconscious honour of appearing, howsoever
transformed, in your pages in prose, I ought to have the
pleasure of a nook in your next number in verse.
" I trust you will print my letter and its contents.
"And, I remain. Sir,
" Your Faithful Servant,
" R. S. Hawker."
The ballad, however, was not printed in Blackwood.
In 1856 he began another literary undertaking, the
origin of which is described in the following letter : —
"August vi., 1856.
"We have also had a visit from a Mr. 131ight, Son of a
Schoolmaster in Penzance, an Artist, and a most deserving
young man. He has already published a Vol., containing
the Antiquities (Crosses, &c.) of West Cornwall, and he is
now going to publish those of East Cornwall. His next
Volume will contain several drawings from this Church
and Glebe. ... I did for him what I have hitherto stead-
fastly refused to all, and that is, I stood to him for a
sketch of myself in Cassock and Hat,^ and this, if he can
engrave it satisfactorily, he intends to publish. . . . He
objects to my Name for the outline, which is, ' A Shadow
■ This sketch appears in the new edition of ' Cornish Ballads.'
264 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
from the Wall of Morwenna.' But this, I think, will be
the title it will bear."
In a letter to Mr. Blight he says : — " You should trans-
fer my Cassocked Shape, and Berg, my dog, from Dewpath
Well, to the Well of St. John."
Blight's volume of 'Ancient Crosses and other Anti-
quities in East and South Cornwall,' was published in
1858. It contains several pieces by Hawker, both in
prose and verse, including his ' Lines of Dedication to
H.R.H. The Prince of Wales.'
On 21 Dec. 1857, he writes: —
" My letter to the Palace thro' the Treasurer, Lieut.-
Col. Phipps, has been fraught with success, and young
Blight's fortunate start in Life is made. I enclose a copy
of the Royal answer, which, with allowance for the stiff
language of Forms, is very encouraging.
'" Windsor Castle. December 29, 1857.
" ' Sir, I am commanded to inform you that, under the
peculiar circumstances. Her Majesty, The Queen, has been
pleased to grant Her Sanction to the acceptance by the Prince of
Wales, as Duke of Cornwall, of the Dedication of the Work of
Mr. John Blight.
" ' I have the honour to be, Sir,
" 'Your obedient humble servant,
" ' C. B. Phipps.
" ' To the Rev. R. S. Hawker.' "
He took a great interest in the preparation of the book,
for he was an enthusiastic student of local antiquities.
Writing to Mr. Blight, he says, " The spirit of your volume
is the preservation of a memorial of things which soon will
pass away. I have read, I believe, every book about Corn-
wall in Existence, and only these are worth a second look :
LETTERS TO J. T. BLIGHT 265
Leland's * Collectanea.'
Little bits in Holinshed.
Camden's Cornish Parts.
Whittaker's * Cathedrals of Cornwall.'
Cornish Things in ' Magna Britannia.' (Lysons).
In another letter he says, ** I have an Engraving from a
Sketch made by Sir T. Acland of a demolished Pier Head ^
at Bude, that I wish to go into your work, with names, if he
will assent. I think it would make your Sale. . . . En-
grave with great care the Pierhead enclosed. Send me
three or four Proofs and leave the rest to me. Send me
100 copies of the Carvure of the Trinity and Church. You
have done the Dove wonderfully well. So is the Son of
Man surpassingly."
Mr. Blight apparently questioned the existence of the
word "carvure," for Hawker writes later: "If no such
word, it is time there should be. I invent it." "If," he
continues, " any of these Notes are printed, they are not to
be altered in a single word. And let each be identified by
my Cipher." The "carvure" in question is to be seen in
Morwenstow Church. It is a curious piece of symbolism.
A dove between two human heads typifies the Holy Ghost
proceeding from the Father and the Son. The head of
the Father — a bearded face — is now missing. A castle on
a rock, attacked by a dragon and protected by the dove,
represents the Church defended by the Holy Ghost from
the onslaught of Satan.
Writing to Mr. Blight on the subject of sea-symbolism
in church architecture, Hawker says : — " The Fishermen
who were the Ancestors of the Church, came from off the
Galil.xan Waters to haul for men.
"We — Born to God at the Font — are children of the
' The old pier which was washed away before the present breakwater was
constructed.
266 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
Water. Therefore all the early symbolism of the Ch. was
of and from the sea. The carvure of the early Arches was
taken from the Sea, and its Creatures, Fish, Dolphins,
meremen and meremaids redound in the early types trans-
posed to wood and stone. And, inasmuch as we, horn first
of the Race of Adam, and secondly of the Family of God,
are thereby of mingled nature of two kinds embodied into
one Person, therefore nothing could be more appropriate
in symbolism than a meremaid, the hybrid of the Earth
and Sea."
Some years later, he writes to Mr. Blight : — ..." Mr.
Maskell has presented to Mrs, Hawker a copy of ' Hunt's
Book of Cornwall.' I think it a blundering failure. His
ecclesiastical ignorance is conspicuous. One quotation
from your Book, about the Mermaid, stamps the Writer.
Most of our early churches were built before a single fish-
ing Boat sailed our Waters, and the fishy emblems pre-
dominate in places where fishermen and sailors are, as in
these parts, unknown to this day. One great principle is,
that watery symbolism is the pervading spirit of Ancient
sacred Architecture. Even the zigzag or chevron mould-
ings on our Norman Arches signify the ripple on the Sea
of Galilee, the smile of Gennesaret."
The book referred to in the above letter was Robert
Hunt's ' Popular Romances of the West of England.' The
author says that Hawker's explanations of sea-symbolism
in Cornish Churches are "far-fetched," and ascribes such
symbolism to the fact that the Churches were built "by
and for a fishing population." But along the dangerous
north coast there is little or no fishing, except for corpses.
The Vicar afterwards conceived a grudge against Mr.
Blight, on grounds which, it must be owned, seem some-
what slight. He details his grievances to j\Ir. J. G.
Godwin thus : —
hroiii an {•>/i;rav/r/x /'y r>'Oiit.
NciRMAN AK< ilKS IN MORWENSK i\V IHIRCII.
CARVING IN MORWENSTOW CHURCH,
A DIVIDED HOOF 267
" Jany. xiv., 1862.
. . . "There is a Book just out, * Blight's Week at the
Land's End ' — it sells. You will find most of my ' bits '
marked with my cipher R. S. H., but some are not. Well,
that sort of Book would I think succeed, if all were verse
with illustrations. Again, another Book, ' Blight's Ancient
Crosses,' 1858, Simpkin & Marshall, to which I contributed.
But this man Blight is such a singular embodiment of
those Brain-suckers who have surrounded my life, that for
illustration, I must give his History. In 1855, I received
a suppliant letter. He asked for names. I got him 40
or 50 — chief men. The Book sold. Then came another
letter, proposing to publish a second collection. He asked
me to help him to obtain leave to dedicate to the Prince
as Duke of Cornwall. I wrote, and was successful. Not
only that. I wrote the Dedication in prose and in verse —
' Hail, Prince and Duke, &c.' Then came tokens of a
divided hoof. I had stipulated that whatsoever I allowed
him to print of mine in this Book should be marked with
my R. S. H. Pie agreed. But by degrees he so diminished
the size of my cipher, that unless you search for it, you
cannot see it at all. Next, he proceeded (after I had
obtained the Royal leave to dedicate a new publication of
new matter) to annex a second edition of his former Book
of the same name, 'Ancient Crosses,' to the new vol., and
to publish both under dedication to H.R. H. as Duke of
Cornwall. But to cut the matter short, I found out by
this time that I was in the hands of a trickster. In his
next publication, I was chary and reserved, and sent him
but little. That little was praised in Reviews, which
Reviews were sent to me by other people, but kept back
by Blight. Now you can understand him and me, and
you will judge the impudence of his writing to me some
weeks since, to say that he intended to publish the ' Ballads
268 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
of Cornwall,' and of course he must depend on mine. I
wrote to say that I declined to allow him to print mine, for
I intended to publish them myself. Nevertheless, such is
the boldness of the man, that it would not surprise me to
find him pirating my verses. Wilkie Collins did without
acknowledgment in his ' Rambles beyond Railways,' and so
did Walter White in his 'Walk to the Land's End.' ^
Indeed this has been my unaltered doom, to help others
and myself to be sacrificed. As to Macmillan, I think the
* Records,' ' Reeds shaken with the Wind,' and ' Echoes,'
more likely to elicit his help than ' Ecclesia.' I like
* Ecclesia ' less than anything I ever published — too hot-
pressed — too fine, too elegant to be ever largely liked."
On 25 Novr. 1861, Hawker wrote to Mr, Godwin : —
" A new feature in my history has just set in. Young
Ladies have betaken themselves to the office of setting tO
music (their own) my words. Hence the 'Trelawny Ballad,'
and the 'Cornish Mother's Wail,' by a Miss Clare, a friend
of the Kennaways. A Miss Harris of Hayne invents a
tune and fixes a difficult metre, Moore's Song, ' She is far
from the land where her young hero sleeps.' Thus has
she extorted from me a Theme of the Cavaliers called ' Sir
Beville.' But all this fails to fulfil a single exigency of my
realities, i.e., one Golden Coin. I have long adopted Old
Johnson's dogma, that he is a fool who writes for any
motive but payment. And now Good Night.
" Yrs. always truly,
"R. S. Hawker.
On January ist 1861 he writes to Miss Louisa T.
Clare : —
"A touch of nature makes the whole world kin, so I
' Their piracy seems to have amounted to their telling, in prose legends
which they no doubt assumed to be genuine, although in reality they owed
their currency to Hawker's verse.
POEMS SET TO MUSIC 269
claim old acquaintance with you in the sympathy of song.
I thank you very kindly for the honour you have done to
my words : your melody for the Hymn is simple and sweet,
& if a low voice be an excellent thing in woman, so is it
with a children's tune,"
Exactly a year later he writes to her again : —
"Jany. ist, 1862.
" My Dear Miss Clare,
" A happy New Year to you, &, as we say in
Cornwall, many of them ! My ' etrennes ' is a song. And
I hope you will be induced to blend with it another of
your melodies ' of linked sweetness long drawn out' — your
Trelawny Music is by all appreciated & admired. My
Ballad was sung to your Notes last night, at a Concert in
Kilkhampton, by Mr. Thynne, the Rector, as you will see
by the inclosed programme. He rehearsed it here at Mrs.
Hawker's Piano a few days ago, & gratified us exceedingly.
So I entreat you to stand on the Terrace at Stowe — Mark
the troop of Horse gathered on the lawn under the Royal
Arms & the Granville quartering three Spear Rests. The
Cornish Banner of 16 bosses & the legend ' one and alV —
sounded ' ale ' — -See Sir Beville, Baton in hand, & recal
the spirit of that 1630-40 time, so will you delight us
with a Kingly warrior inarch, for March it should be, &
each verse should resound the same tune.
" I am, dear Miss Clare, in hot haste,
"Yours faithfully,
" R. S. Hawker."
" Perhaps a good name for the song," he writes to Mr.
Godwin, " in the Advertisements of any Posthumous
Publisher would be Sir Beville' s March, or The March of
The Cornish, or, The Western Men, &c. But it is an exact
270 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
shadow of my whole life. Here am I with Three Musical
Melodies, which once heard would win immediate Praise
and Sale, yet must I bury them out of sight like an
untimely Birth."
When he received the music for ' Sir Beville,' he wrote to
Miss Clare : —
"Jan. 20, 1862.
" I saw Sir Beville & His Troop marching out of Stowe
Woods, bound for Stamford Field, while Mrs. Hawker
struck your notes into Sound. It was like Christabelle's
Spell, when
" ' The youthful Lord of Triermain
Came back upon her Soul again — ' "
So the scene returned.
" ' When Trevanion's Steed was prancing
In his Glory and his Pride,
And Sir Beville's Steel was glancing
Along the mountain Side.'
. . . What can I say more to attest your Genius ? "
With reference to this lady he writes jokingly to his
niece : —
"The Miss Clare you ask about, you must surely
recollect. You have read Marmion ? ^ Well, don't you
remember all her history ? First intended to be a nun —
then changed her plans — marries Mr. Wilton, Junr., and
the whole winds up with a saying of Sir W, Scott's,
" ' Twas said of many a wedded pair.
Love they like Wilton and like Clare.'
' Cf. The last four lines.
GROSS PLAGIARISM 271
"They lived very happily for some time, but Family
reasons induce her still to use her Maiden Name. I never
saw her, but two summers ago Sir John Kennaway and
his Daughter dined here — Sir T. Acland sent them to us
with letters — after dinner Miss Kennaway said to me, ' I
sho'd like to play one of your own ballads set to musie by
a friend of mine. Miss Clare.' She accordingly did play
and sing in a magnificent style, ' And shall Trelawny
die ? ' Since then I have heard from and written to Miss
Clare, and it struck me that her ' Cornish Mother' and 'Sir
Beville ' must suit your voice accurately. . . . Your Aunt's
sight [z.e.y Mrs. Hawker's] is so bad that she can only
learn music in bits and by degrees when new to her."
Hawker's poem, ' Sir Beville,' was subjected six years
later to a very gross act of plagiarism, thus described by
Dr. T. N. Brushfield, in the Western Antiquary.
(1889. IX. 41-4.)
" In 1867 there was published a goodly octavo volume of
314 pages, entitled 'Ballads and Legends of Cheshire,'
compiled by Major Egerton Leigh, of High Leigh,
Cheshire, a gentleman much thought of in the county,
and well known as the author of some valuable papers,
read at meetings of the Cheshire Archaeological Society.
One of the ballads in it, and consisting of twelve 4-line
verses, is headed 'Old MynshuU of Erdeswick ' (305-8).
This, according to the Table of Contents, was taken from an
' Old Manuscript ; ' but, in a prefatory note to the verses,
is described as ' A Royalist song found amongst the
family papers in an old oak chest, at Erdeswick Hall, one
of the seats of the Minshull family.' The work was re-
viewed by Mr. W. E. A. Axon in the St. James's AIaga;~ine,
"and this ballad, accepted at what it professed to be, was
praised for its vivid portraiture of that chivalrous loyalty
for which Cheshire . . . has always been remarkable." .V
2/2 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
copy of this review was sent to Mr. Hawker. The latter
recognised his own work under the thin veil of alteration.
His characteristic reply to Mr. Axon I quote in full : —
" Morwenstow. February i6, 1868.
" My Dear Sir,
"I thank you sincerely for your Paper and
Letter just now received, and most of all for your Photo-
graph. When I can get one of myself I shall be happy
to transmit it to you, but I have now not one copy. Our
correspondence is, I fear, likely to be discordant, if I may
augur from one leaf of your Review of Major Leigh's
Ballads. It reveals one of the most audacious deeds of
plagiarism ever perpetrated even on myself, and I have
been a painful sufferer from literary theft. The alleged
Mynshull Ballad is a clumsy copy of one of my own on
Sir Bevill Granville, which I wrote many years ago, and
which has been set to march music, and sung in the West
of England for a long while. I enclose a copy, which I
sent to Notes and Queries seven years ago, and by which
you will perceive that all that is good in the Cheshire
parody is mine, and all that is vapid is Major Leigh's. I
have copied it into my MSS. for publication, and I shall
add the date in my own defence. Luckily a friend of
mine, Mr. Maskell, the well-known ecclesiastical writer,
was aware of my composition, verse by verse (he lived
then near me at Bude), and he can attest my original
writing if attestation be required. From my remote and
solitary abode I have been a more than usual victim to
fraudulent writers. I shall be glad to hear what you have
to say as to the case, wherein you have been unconsciously
led to abet a dishonourable proceeding. I am receiving
additions to my list every day, and my friends will soon
'SIR BEVILLE' 273
be at the work of negotiating with a publisher. I shall be
very glad to see any criticism on my book, which you
may publish ; but there is one literary blotch which you
will not be able to fix on me. One thing there is which
cannot be fixed on me, and that is plagiarism.
"I am,
"Yours faithfully,
" R. S. Hawker."
It is only just to mention that Dr. Brushfteld entirely
exculpates Major Leigh from complicity in the deception.
He was imposed upon by some one else, but the real
culprit has not been traced. Hawker's Ballad and the
' Cheshire parody ' are here placed side by side.
"SIR BEVILLE.
' Arise ! and away ! for the King and the Land !
Farewell to the Couch and the Pillow :
With spear in the Rest, and with Rein in the Hand,
Let us rush on the foe like a Billow !
II.
' Call the Hind from the Plough, and the Herd from the Fold,
Bid the Wassailer cease from his Revel :
And ride for old Stowe, where the Banner's unrolled,
For the cause of King Charles and Sir Beville !
III.
Trevanion is up, and Godolphin is nigh,
And Harris of Hayne's o'er the river ;
From Lundy to Looe, ' One and all I ' is the cry.
And the King and Sir Beville for ever !
s
274 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
" Ay ! by Tre, Pol, and Pen, ye may know Cornish men,
'Mid the names and the nobles of Devon ;
But if truth to the King be a signal, why then
Ye can find out the Granville in heaven.
" Ride ! Ride ! with red spur, there is death in delay,
'Tis a race for dear life with the devil ;
If dark Cromwell prevail, and the King must give way,
This earth is no place for Sir Beville.
VI.
*' So at Stamford he fought, and at Lansdown he fell.
But vain were the visions he cherished :
For the great Cornish heart, that the King loved so well.
In the grave of the Granville it perished."
"OLD MYNSHULL OF ERDESWICK.
fThe bracketed jigures indicate the corresponding stanzas of the original.)
1 (I)
" Arise ! and away for the King and ye Land !
Farewell to ye couch and ye pillow ;
With spear in its rest, and with rein in hand,
Let us rush on ye foe like a billow !
2 (2)
*' Call the hind from ye plough, and ye herd from the fold.
Bid ye Wassiler to take a long pull ;
Then ride for old Erdeswick, whose banner's unrolled
For the cause of King Charles and Mynshull.
3 (5)
*' Ride, ride, with red spur — there is death in delay ;
'Tis a race for dear life with ye Devil j
For if Cromwell prevail, and ye King now gives way,
Our land must in slavery revel
'OLD MYNSHULL' 275
4 (3)
'Piers Button is up, and young Brereton is nigh,
And Ffytton is over ye river ;
From Gawsworth and Vernon ' One and All ' is the cry.
And ' The King and old Mynshull for ever ! '
" There was Leycester, and Massey^ and Poole of old fame j
And Leigh with his famed triple banner ;
Old Venables too, with his dragon and flame,
And Egerton from the old manor.
" Young Mainwaring fell by the side of hys sire.
Stout Booth was revenged for him there ;
For the foe left his grim trunkless head in the mire,
By the sword of old Dunham^ s young heir.
7 (4)
" Aye, ' by waif, soc, and theam, you may know Cheshire men,'
'Mid the names and the nobles here given ;
But if truth to the King be a signal why then
Ye can find out old Mynshull in heaven.
8
" ' By the Crescent and Star my forefathers won
On the plains of old Palestine;
The Roundheads shall feel the effect of my steel,
For age has improved it like wine ! '
' There was death in each stroke, whilst old Mynshull thus spoke,
And Roundheads fell off in a cluster,
Such havoc he made, that his trusty old blade
Told a tale the next day at their muster.
2/6 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
lo (9)
" At Edgehill he fought, and at Worcester he fell,
But in vain were the visions he cherished.
For the brave Cheshire heart that our king loved so well,
In the grave of ye Mynshulls lyes perished.
II
" Then hurrah for the king ! and Cheshire men sing,
Let the bells give a merry round peal !
For loyal and true to his Church and his king
Old Mynshull for ever did feel.
12
" May his sons prove as true to their church and their king.
And act, like their sire, with decision
And firmness whenever the foe's on the wing.
For from heaven they get their commission ! "
— (Major Leigh's 'Cheshire Ballads,' 305-
It is noticeable that the ballad ' Sir Beville ' resembles
the more famous one on Trelawny, in that it embodies'an
old Cornish saying, mentioned in connection with Cornish
names by Carevv, who says, " Most of them begin with
Tre, Pol, or Pen, which signifie a Towne, a Top, and a
head : whence grew the common by-word —
" ' By Tre, Pol and Pen
You shall know the Cornishmen.' "
Hawker's remote position prevented him from making
the acquaintance of editors and publishers, often so
potent a factor in literary success, and one of which, with
his fascinating personality, he would have made good use.
His failure to win the popular ear often depressed him.
Thus he writes to Mr. West : —
TABOOED BY THE TIMES 277
" Novr. vii., 1861.
" How, I know not, and yet I fear the fault is my own
(utter apathy & loneliness of mind), but nearly all my
correspondence has ceased. There seems to be no shadow
of sympathy between the men of my generation and
myself. If I print any thing in prose or verse no one cares
even to read it. No one ever notices the thoughts or
language — neither the mower nor he that gathereth the
sheaves. Only regard my lines on the Comet. They were
tabooed by The Times, no literary journal would admit
them, the Editor of the Oi'iental Budget rejected them
because His paper ' only admitted literary compositions.'
Well, I do not often seek recognition in print, and if I win
the forbearance of two or three, yourself among them
chief, I am and must be content. I am glad that you
allow me to write to you. I do not deserve it, but I must
once for all entreat you to believe that I do value your
good will exceedingly, and only wish I could deserve it
more. I respond also to your wish that one neighbourhood
could have held us both : as it is, let us rejoice in the
facilities of the Post. Like yourself, I still cling to Notes
and Queries — indeed, badly as the staff have behaved to
me, Thoms does admit my MSS., and under different
Signatures I send him Prose & Verse. I don't suppose
you recognise my paragraphs, but ' Breachan,' ' Ben Tamar,'
' Xectan ' will identify me for you."
CHAPTER XVI
Letters to Mrs. Watson/ 1855 ^^ 1862
Crimean War — Napoleon III. — A Son of Dr. Arnold at
MoRWENSTOw — An Epitaph — Florence Nightingale — Lord
Clinton — A Fatal Accident — A Murder — Rival Coroners
— A Comet — Plymouth Brethren — Spurgeon — The
Indian Mutiny — A Wreck — Death of a Wrecker — Lord
Harrowby at Morwenstow — ' The Great Eastern ' — Visit
of Dean Liddell — The Vera Effigies — Sir Bevill Gran-
ville's Coffin — The Comet of 1861 — American Civil War
— Death of Prince Albert — The Exhibition.
At this point begins one of the strangest episodes in
Havi^ker's strange career. The appeal which he issued in
1855 on behalf of the Church roof came to the notice of a
lady named Mrs. Watson, then living at Budleigh
Salterton,^ an admirer of his poems, but a total stranger to
himself. She responded with a liberal subscription, and
this unexpected generosity so touched him that, as will be
seen, he made her the confidante of all his hopes and
anxieties. The correspondence thus begun developed into
' For the next seven years, up to his wife's death, there are comparatively
few letters to other correspondents. Up to that point, therefore, I have thought
it best to place the letters to Mrs. Watson all together in the present chapter,
and those addressed to others in the next. After his wife's death in 1863, there
are more letters to other correspondents, and I have put those to Mrs. Watson
among the rest in chronological order.
= She afterwards lived at Bath, at Ulverstone, and at Grange in Lancashire.
278
A NEW FRIEND 279
a weekly interchange of letters, which continued, with
scarcely an interruption, for fifteen years. His letters to
her have all been carefully kept, and would fill a volume in
themselves. Only a small proportion of extracts can be
given here.
But this was not all. When Mrs. Watson learnt all the
story of Hawker's life at Morwenstow she was moved to
further liberality. For many years she sent him a regular
sum for his private use. The romantic part of the story is
that the Vicar and his benefactress never met. About
1870 the correspondence ceased, apparently through the
state of Mrs. Watson's health. She died early in 1875, a
few months before Hawker, and left a legacy of ;^2oo to
his children. The letters quoted will tell all else that can
be told about this unique friendship. Unfortunately, her
letters to him have not been preserved.
" May xiv., 1855.
" I thank you. Dear Madam, very gratefully and in the
name of the Church, for that which I cannot but term a noble
donation towards the succour of my Roof. You are right,
it is more blessed to give than to receive ; but altho' many
are prone enough to quote that text there are but few who
proceed as you have done to act on it. When a Woman
of Syria had broken the Seal of a Vase of Balsam and
poured it on Her Master's feet, it was declared by Him that
wheresoever his Gospel should be proclaimed throughout
the world, there also should that thing which she had done
be told in memorial of Her. So will your gift be
announced from my Altar, and the fragrance of your Deed
of Mercy will fill God's House. There are not many
whom I have allowed to contribute, but I could discern
your spirit from your letters, and I rejoice to discover that
my confidence was right.
28o LIF^E OF R. S. HAWKER
" If I do lack aid again I shall resort to your heart
again. Allow me Jo ofifer you my thoughts on the War in
printed verse/ and I remain, Yours, Dear Madam, most
faithfully,
" R. S. Hawker."
"Oct. xix., 1855.
" You ask me which I should prefer, a yearly donation or
a gift at once and for all. I answer candidly and for many
reasons the latter choice. I am gradually, but with all
feasible speed, restoring a New Shingle Roof Every space
of Ten Feet each way costs me Six Pounds. Your last
donation with another from one of Sir T. Acland's Sons [-in-
law], Mr. A. D. Troyte, has enabled me to finish a square —
And now I shall be fain, with your merciful succour, to pro-
ceed while it is yet day before the night cometh wherein
no man can work. The desertion of the Ratepayers only
makes me cling the more to ' my Saxon Shrine.' Ever
since Easter 1853 I have sustained the total cost of the
Services and Repairs — set up a beautiful carved Screen. . .
and the rest you know. My Church is to me that which
the Spot of Absalom's choice was to him, when he said, ' I
have no Son to keep my name in remembrance : ' so he
reared a pillar in the King's Dale — and it is called to this
day Absalom's Place.
"May God for ever bless you. Dear madam, and requite
you in the resurrection of the Just.
" Yours gratefully,
" R. S. Hawker."
There is a parochial character about the Vicar's comments
on public affairs which will nowadays provoke a smile.
' ' Baal-Zephon.' See 'Cornish Ballads.'
THE CRIMEAN WAR 281
Thus he writes on March 24th, 1856, about the Crimean
War—
"Three months before the declaration of War, in the
time when vainglorious vaunt was loud on every wind, I
gave great offence by this prophecy, which I delivered again
and again in both my Churches, and on every occasion
among my people. England will never win a victory by
Sea or Land. England will fail, and be dishonoured in this
War. And when I so said I gave my reasons. In former
days and later times down to the boasted Waterloo success,
this was to a certain extent a Godfearing Land. No hand
had then been laid on God's Tenth or Tithe — No law had
made poverty a guilt and interfered with Christian Alms —
No efforts had been made to rob the Roofs and Walls of
God of repair by rate — But now all these crimes have been
committed, not here and there by men or bodies of men,
but by the gathered Nation — by assembled voice of law and
by collective hand and deed. When victories of old were
won, such as are recorded by the Prophet Daniel and
others, they were never gained by the human army alone
but by the Angel expressly sent from on high. The
Angel of England is withheld by the Angel's God — and
therefore, said I, and so still I say, England will not
prevail — no, neither in War nor in Council of Peace —
no more.
" You asked me about Peace. Here again I prophesied
— We must have Peace — whether disgraceful to us or not.
It is the will of Napoleon the Third — He so mentally
decreed long ago — when his troops took the citadel — He
wills it, and without him what are we ? There does not
exist a Nation of the continent which ever speaks of
England now but with wondering scorn. They call the
War the French War: they have asked for many months
'What will the Emperors do?' but of England's purposes
282 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
or deeds, or thoughts, nothing ! All this is painful enough,
but it is all true.
" Then look at our crimes — Wellnigh every weekly Paper
now has its crime column for paragraphs of deeds such as
are elsewhere rarely known. It was stated not long ago in
a French paper that more capital crimes were recorded by
our own papers as committed in England every tveek than
are done in France in the whole year.
" Shall I not visit for these things, saith the Lord, and
shall not my soul be avenged for such a Nation as this ? "
"April xvii., 1856.
" My Dear Mrs. Watson !
" My never seen, but still my well-known and
gentlehearted friend ! Not merely as a duty, but as a
congenial delight, I wish to confide to your sympathy
and trust some account of that comparative stranger to
you in person and History, myself.
[Then follows a survey of his married life.]
. . . "One clear, plain and mournful Statement, will
record a volume — Not only was every morsel of their land
(his wife's sisters') sold for the behoof of claimants, but
Mrs. Hawker and myself had to surrender her annuity
from leaseholds to meet so far as its estimated life value
wd. go the surplusage of debt, and I myself incurred
and have gradually paid several hundred pounds. This
climax occurred about ten years agone. At that advanced
period of my own life, a still more advanced one of several
years in my Wife's case, we had as it were to begin that
tragedy called Life over again. I have fortified the future
as well as I was able by insurances — By one of these
;^iOO a year is secured to Mrs. Hawker for her life if she
survives me. By two others whatsoever incumbrances
MONEY TROUBLES 283
may remain at my own death will be met. But — But the
sacrifice of Income which these measures have enforced is
something very painful, and were it not for my Farm (the
Glebe) I hardly see how I could carry on a clerical
existence ; and in addition to this there are still undefrayed
claims for which I have given Bonds and Notes of Hand :
now about four : five existed but a very little while ago : but
one, which had threatened me with exposure, misery, nay,
ruin, this one was abolished by the unlocked for God-
inspired generosity of a Friend, whom I never saw, but
whom I pray God to bless on my knees every day, every
night, and whom I implore the Angel of my Baptism to
watch over, and to guard as he surely will : need I write
her name ? No ! for in the deed I mention you cannot
but recognize your own loving-hearted Succour to a
broken-spirited Man. Nor is it a light thing, to have
succoured me so — I am so placed, ' to cross the chasm,
on the unsteady footing of a spear' that a single public
process — one pecuniary event of open shame must drive
me from Morwenstow. My system of nerves has been so
rent and assayed, that I have thrice fainted in Church, and
if my people knew why, I could not enter there again.
Let no one upbraid me — I am not ashamed of any out-
lay of money — I have no reason to blench because of any
liability I have ever incurred — far, very far from that —
but my yielding is constitutional and involuntary, from
boyhood I have been prone to faintness from any emotion
of sorrow or joy, hope or fear. Once three years agone, I
lost consciousness of passing events for .... 7iearly six
weeks! ! and the only medical opinion was pressure of
thought, and so indeed it was : and how Mrs. Hawker
lived through that awful time I know not. The dread of
a return so bears me down to the very earth, that when I am
threatened, as I was, when I wrote so recklessly to you there
284 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
is no sacrifice I would not make to appease and to avert.
One overwhelming desire, one prayer so intense as to be
almost a Monomania is — Only let me keep this roof over
my dear Wife's head in peace while she is spared to me —
only let exposure wait till then ; and after her, welcome
Shame, ruin, utter Poverty for me"
[On thick, Quarto paper — the writing right across the
width.]
"June xvij., 1856.
" You ask me to write on small Paper. Do you not per-
ceive how difficult it is — I cannot reduce my handwriting
without pain, and I wish to preserve the pleasure of ad-
dressing you unimpaired. The theme of my last was the
Confirmation. I know not how to render my other
avocations of the last fortnight of interest to you. Yes,
one thing may strike you as it did me. The Inspector
was a Son of Dr. Arnold's — Master of Rugby — the Leader
of the Church Party in Oxford which is called Low. The
Doctor's Family all were brought up rigid adversaries of
all High Church practices and men. His eldest^ Son,
Brother of the Clergyman who was here, has departed from
the Church of England, and is now a member of that of
Rome ; 'and yet,' said the Inspector to me, 'My Brother
was always fondly filial, and so like my Father in all his
mental habits and modes of life, that he seemed the very
last Man on Earth to do as he has done.' ' Are you quite
' This is a mistake. Matthew Arnold was the eldest son, and he never
became a Roman Catholic. The second son, Thomas, father of Mrs. Humphry
Ward, joined the Church of Rome, left it, and returned to it again. He was a
Professor in Dublin. The one who visited Morwenstow was no doubt
Edward Arnold, a younger son, Fellow of All Souls, and, like Matthew
Arnold, an Inspector of Schools. These particulars were kindly furnished by
Mr. G. W. E. Russell.
DR. ARNOLD 285
sure,' said I, ' that your Father, if he had been now alive,
would have been the Partisan he was before he died ? '
And he could not answer ' Yes.'
[The keeping of Sunday,]
" Do you know that here in England, until the time of
Cromwell, Sunday never once was called the Sabbath-Day?
But in all this course of thought there is no sanction for
sinful usages upon the First Day of the Week — Why
should Sin be held more lawful on that Day than on the
other Six ? There is a wide, wide Gulph between the
calm and gentle Gladness of Morwenstow on Sunday
Night, and the Theatre — the Race Course — the Gambling
Saloons of France, which defile any day and all. But
when I read the Public Papers, and discern that nine tenths
of total England are actually unaware of the difference
between the Hebrew Fast and the Christian Festival —
when both Houses of Parliament speak of the Seventh
Day as if Saturday were still Sabbatically enjoined —
when, I say, I read such words, I am every day more and
more convinced of my own unfitness to converse or reason
with such a Nation as this."
"July ij., 1856.
..." Besides the Mr, Fortescue you mention, there was
another of the same family (The Castle Hill), who died in
Dublin four or five years since, and for whom I wrote, at
the request of his Widow, an Epitaph,^ He had chosen
from Mr. Sidney Herbert's New Church in Wiltshire, a
' In a letter to Sir Thomas Acland, dated xv, Nov. 1852, Hawker says : —
"I have written and Mrs. Fortescue has adopted the inclosed verse for the
Tomb of our lamented and very dear Friend. There is nothing in the
lilies, as \ conceive, that can offend a boundless Protestant, nor would it at all
distress me if there were. Because every word is true: and it would be to
me a real delight to discover that you could concede approval to my inscrip-
tion."
286 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
pattern of a carved Cross for his own Grave, whensoever he
should die. It was placed, and beneath this Cross stood
these words, which I will write on a separate bit of paper
and inclose.
" ' Epitaph.
" ' Beneath the Cross he sleeps ! that hallowing shade
Falls where a faithful heart is fondly laid :
Love strong in Death ! behold the conquering sign,
O Loved and Lost ! that Victory is thine ! '
" He lies in a Cemetery called Harold's Cross near
Dublin."
"Julyiij., 1856.
" You were quite right to refuse to take part in the
tract-scattering usages which too many Clergymen adopt.
I do not find such things mentioned in the Bible as among
the Channels of God's Grace, nor do I conceive that any
Sinner was ever brought to Repentance by the ministry of
a tract — indeed I have rarely read one but it was meant to
convey some party purpose of a religious controversy or
to attack other men — and howsoever it may nowadays be
forgotten, it is nevertheless most true, that to hate the
tenets or the practice of others is not the way to foster
religious truth of one's own."
"Aug. vi., 1856.
"Inclosed I send you a letter for Mr. Kelly of Kelly,
near Tavistock, an old College friend of mine, which will
explain to you a singular visit we have had.
"The Lady arrived on Sunday afternoon, the purport
of her visit chiefly was to collect information about Sir
Bevil Granville (the Great Man of this District during the
Civil War), whose Great-Great Grand Daughter she stated
herself to be.
FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE 287
" She is the Wife of Sir Benjamin Hall, one of the
ministry, whose name you must have seen in connexion
with the Sunday Band question. She is Welsh, and spoke
of her Grand-children, so you may guess her Age. She
told Mrs. Hawker she was thoroughly surprised at finding
me look as I did, having expected from what she had
heard to find me ' as old as Methuselah.' She told us a
great deal about the World in which she moves, and among
other strange things, one about Miss Nightingale. She
is held by one Party as little less than angel, and by
others as below woman in hardness of heart. Some say
she is so entirely the slave of routine that she withheld
enormous loads of supplies until she could deliver them
herself At all events. Party Spirit runs far higher for and
against her than on any other question of the political
World. Of which story the moral to me is, that Great
People are like little ones in their feelings, passions, love
and hate.
"Aug. xj., 1856.
" I quite concur in your estimate of the Party Spirit
about Florence Nightingale — and I may say to you in
confidence that I more than suspected a grudge at her
popularity in our recent guest. But what is the Upper
World after all but Adam and Eve in Kings' Houses ?
Do you know that altho' I will confess to a strong apprecia-
tion of a copious income, perhaps from never having com-
passed one yet, there is not a single Deanery, Canonry or
Bishopric that I would accept if offered me. This is no
vaunt of mine but a solemn fact."
"Oct. XV., 1856.
" My Dear Mrs. Watson,
'* Lady Acland told Mrs. Hawker, when she was
here for the last time (this day year), that these Railways
288 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
had utterly destroyed the Domestic Character of English
People. She said that very few of her Friends were
content now to endure the monotony of home — the fatal
facility of motion had made everybody restless and im-
patient— dissatisfied unless they had continual change of
scene. How strange all this seemed to us two — for we
literally never cross the Parish boundary for years.
" Three small vessels foundered last month between my
Cliffs and Lundy — only one crew saved. From my Glebe
at night we watch Three Light Houses. Two at Padstow
and Trevose Head, and one, a revolving Signal, on Lundy.
Sir S. Northcote told me that Lundy is to be a Depot for
Convicts forthwith — this will mar the associations of the
Severn Sea. The Island is fifteen miles aslant from this
House towards Wales."
"Dec. 2, 1856.
"You will perhaps have seen in the Papers that your
recent place of abode, Budleigh Salterton, has been the
scene of festive assemblage to commemorate Mr. Mark
Rolle's coming of age. He is Lord Clinton's Second Son,
and has been here with his Father, who is the owner of the
Sheaf Tithe of Morwenstow. He (Lord C.) has been ever
since he came into Possession of the Tithe in 1848 more
than friendly to me as Vicar. He came immediately as
the Lease fell in — ordered a Stained Glass Window for the
Chancel from Warrington of London, and when the Farmers
rebelled against the Shingle Roof and the Rate, Lord C.
ordered a New South Roof for the entire Chancel of
Wooden Shingle, as a Rebuke to the Rebels and an
encouragement to me. A more amiable, kind hearted man
cannot exist. This second son of his is the Successor to
the vast Estates of the late Lord Rolle, and therefore he
PROVERBS 289
has taken the name. . . When I ask for anything to be
done to the Chancel (which he, Lord C, has to repair), his
answer is ' Order whatever you please, and my Steward
will immediately pay the expense.' And I am told by
others that his little girl, Morwenna, is the Pet of both her
Parents."
"Jan. vij., 1857.
" There is a Scotch saying that ' a wilful man maun hae
his way.' Therefore must I have mine, and as I have
intended for long to break in upon your Birthday with
my jangling Bells of rhyme, so now I place this packet on
your Table, in memory of the faithful sympathy, the
sincere kindliness, and the earnest good-withes of us Two,
towards you on your Day of Life."
"Jany. xx., 1857.
"The old people have a proverb —
" ' When grass doth grow in Janovere
It grows the worse for it all the year.'
And again there is another proverb —
" ' A green Yule, a full Churchyard.' "
" Jan. XX., 1857.
..." On a day in this month, I hired a portable thresh-
ing machine to thresh out some Corn. Men are now
utterly unattainable for such work. A man came with it,
and with him my own old man (the Sexton) worked.
In the evening we heard a noise down stairs (we always
sit up in a small, snug room), and a person coming up
fast. I went out and down. At the back door stood
George Tape, my Man, with one Hand hanging only by the
sinews, crushed [lorist and all) into a pulp. I led him in
T
290 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
— placed him in a chair — and how I found nerve I know
not — I took my handkerchief- — bound it round his arm
above the elbow with a twisting stick, so as to make (as a
Medical man taught me in early life) a rude tourniquet to
stop the bleeding — I then sent off my boy and Pony for
the Surgeon. A Farmer living near came in, and we led
the poor fellow to the door, where Mrs. H.'s pony chair
had been brought by the Farmer, and a horse, and we
took him a quarter of a mile to his home. He is a
widower, with two Children — a Son a Labourer at
Plymouth, and a Daughter living at Stratton, but both in
Morw'w. to visit him that very day. Soon after we
reached his house, and had cut off his clothes, and so put
him to bed, came the Doctor. He at once decided
amputation his only chance — but postponed doing it until
next Morning. Nearly all that night I was with him —
Once after coming home to lie down I was sent for — his
daughter came — the tourniquet was loosening — In his
pain he had done it. I rushed up — twisted the stick again,
and stopped again the bleeding. In the morning came
Dinham, my Brother-in-law, who is the Surgeon, and a Mr.
King, another Surgeon, to amputate. This I could not see,
but with the Son I walked up and down under the window.
It took I of an hour. Poor George never cried out nor
groaned. He was very very prostrate, and weak, and I
soon saw he would not live. I stayed, of course, with him
all day, and towards Evening he gradually sank and died !
Poor, poor fellow ! He subdued even his moans, ' not to
vex Master,' and his nerve was wonderful. I sent then
the Parish constable 30 miles for the Coroner, and on
Saty. (the loth) was the inquest : on the i rth I buried him
by the side of his wife. He was in good circumstances,
and his Children are well off. He was 6^^. Since his death
and all last week to this Date I have had little rest."
RIVAL CORONERS 291
" March x., 1857.
" One of my two Parishes, Wellcombe, is in Devon, the
other, Morwenstow, is in Cornwall. They and the two
Counties to which they belong are divided by a small
Rivulet or Brook. In an eddy of this stream, and just
below a deep, dark Pool, a Man — a Miller — found on
Saturday the Body of a dead Female Child ! He came
to me to make known the discovery, and to say that he
had brought the little corpse into his own house, which
stands on the Morwenstow. and Cornish Side. He had
found it on the Wellcombe Bank, and drawn it there to
land. The Constable of Wellcombe had gone off at once
to Barnstaple for the Devon Coroner. I directed him to
lock up the Child, and allow no one to see it until the
Coroner arrived. On Sunday Morning, about Nine
o'clock, the Miller came again to say, the Constable had
returned with a message from Mr. Toller, the Coroner, to
state that as the Body had been laid in a House in Corn-
wall he could not hold an inquest on it, but that it was the
Cornish Coroner's office so to do. I sent at once for the
Morw. Constable, and I wrote a statement of the facts at
full length, and about half past Ten the Constable started
for the Cornish Coroner. He lives about 30 miles from
hence beyond Launceston. Then I went to Church here,
worried not a little with the horror of the thing. Now, the
service at Wellcombe is at half past Two. When I
arrived, I found the People excited and full of rumours.
Suspicion however had not fixed on any one there. After
(Church the Churchwarden said a person had passed by
who said the Devon Coroner had found out after he had
sent the Wellcombe Constable away that he had made a
mistake — that it was his duty to hold the inquest
notwithstanding that the Body lay on the Cornish
Side, because it had been drawn to the land on
292 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
Devonshire Soil. Nay more, that Mr. Toller, the
Devon Coroner, had gone on to Morw'w. to stay the
Night, and to hold the inquest next day. Guess the
annoyance added to my usual Sunday's work. Well,
Home once more, and at Church at a Quarter past
Four. When I came out, a messenger waited at the
Porch, with a Note from Mr. Toller. He had heard that
the Cornish Coroner was sent for, and wished to know
what had better be done. So, I had to go to the house
two miles off- — and Mrs, H. was angry that he did not
come to me — and to cause him to send off a Man on
horseback with a letter, to ride all night, and to get in
time to prevent Mr. Goode, Coroner for Cornwall, from
starting in the Morning. But it was all in vain. Either
the Messenger loitered or went by a different road, for so
it was that about midday on Monday the two Coroners
met at the Mill. Mr. Toller, the Devon man, had first
bungled through a shallow and fruitless inquest, and the
result was the unmeaning verdict of Found Drowned !
W^hen Mr. Goode, and Dinham the Surgeon, who was
brought to make the post mortem examination, arrived,
High words ensued, and it was my difficult task to pacify
Mr. Goode. He persists in saying that Mr. Toller had
no right to officiate on Cornish Ground, and the dispute is
not I fear yet over. Our Coroner states that he must
refer it to the Quarter Sessions, and it is my nervous
dread that I may be dragged forward as a Witness. And
after all this uproar, not a single discovery of the Mother
or the Murderer ! Mr. Goode, who examined the
Child externally, thinks it was brought to the spot
dead, and cast in. But inasmuch as no lungs were
searched, it is not known whether it was born alive.
Last Night the Sexton at Wellcombe buried it in the
Churchyard."
A COMET 293
"April 20, 1857.
" You mention a French prophesy of a fine summer.
Have you heard a very fearful doctrine among the
astronomers — that a Comet which becomes in its course
visible from the earth is in all likelihood so much nearer
this time (it appears once in 300 years) that it will scorch
up all life on this orb of ours, and that according to St.
Peter's language this world will be destroyed by fire ?
Such exitement prevails in France on this subject that
the discussion is forbidden there. But I saw last week in
the paper a work advertised, price 6d. and published by
Gilbert in Paternoster Row, entitled ' Will the Comet strike
the Earth?' There is a great deal of a priori likelihood
in the thought. The age of the world — not far off the
6000 years which the prophecy of Enoch foretold would
be the Earth's". duration. The stealthy approach of such
a Thing like a Thief in the Night. The fact that it is
not foretold in Revelation, but inferred from the silent
study of the Stars — the trouble of the Nations — not one
quietvland — the demoniac swing of English crime, sur-
passing in one year and every year the amount of former
centuries — the spread of Hatred throughout the World, &c.
The month is foretold, and it is this next June. What a
thought of awe it is that this Thing may be, and that we
may be the Race ivho ivill be alive to see it, as one genera-
tion certainly will be. God shield us. Better die one by
one."
"May XX., 1857-
..." I read, but not to Mrs. Hawker, the account in the
papers of the onslaught on the Clergyman for the lucre of the
Church Plate. I say, not to her, because our own Paten
Chalice and Flagon stand on a Cupboard shelf in the next
294 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
room to that wherein we sleep. Shall I tell you why ?
Ten years agone this Church was entered by Night and
robbed of the offertory alms, about Twenty Shillings.
A week before (because two Churches in the neighbour-
hood had been broken into and robbed of Vessels which
are only of Pewter) I brought ours into the Vicarage, and
ever since I have kept it here. The man who committed
this Sacrilege was apprehended just after Morwenstow
robbery, and the small silver of our alms chest was found
in his pockets, but he was committed to prison and con-
victed on another charge, that of stealing a garment, and
his sentence was transportation for Ten Years ; therefore
if not dead his return may even now be looked for. It is
certainly a nervous thought to remember that Three
Clergymen have of late been assailed, and of these
Two have fired and hit the robbers. I keep my Re-
volver with its six loads ready with powder and copper
cap on the lid of my escritoire, and six bullets close by so
as to load at a moment's warning. But I should fire at
the legs of an assailant and not at a vital part. For to
kill a man would most surely bring on my own death
afterwards.
..." You ask if illness prevented Mrs. Hawker going
with me — no — but her sight is become so dim that she
cannot recognise faces, nor walk streets even on my arm
with confidence. It is indeed a pain and perplexity to
preside at table for more than me, I must say to you, my
dear Mrs. Watson, how it cuts me down to the Earth to
see her poor eyes weaken and her activity passing away.
But do not, do not, I entreat you, allude to this when you
write. I suppress in reading every passage that could by
any possibility cause grief, but sometimes I can hardly
bear the life I live. Her mind has been wonderful for
strength and energy, but when she does give way to fears
PLYMOUTH BRETHREN 295
about me, and dread of future anguish forme, it is terrible.
But I must change the theme, or no sleep to-night."
" May xxviij., 1857.
. . . "You mention the Lady who is of the Plymouth
Brethren Sect. They are usually bitter and furious
Calvinists, and have been to me through all my life a theme
of horror. I knew them all too well as a boy in my
Grandfather's family, and I never recall what I heard and
saw among them without a shudder. They hold the
Election before all Worlds of a fixed number of Persons
who must be saved be they what they may — murderers or
infidels^ and they hold the everlasting damnation of all the
rest no matter what their efforts — no matter how holy
their total lives. This I have not only heard but seen
acted on, and carried out by Persons whom I could not
mistake. Mixed up with these broad doctrines come many
others — a notion of a millennial reign of our Blessed
Saviour — for whom a Knife and fork and Place at Table
were kept in many of their houses year after year — A
tenet that all things should be held in common and so en-
joyed— and such depravity of morals, carefully, however,
concealed, that I don't think any entreaty would induce
me now to pray in a room where they knelt down. All
this I mention to you in full confidence, Dear Madam, and for
your Soul's happiness and peace. The language you repeat
uttered by Mrs. VV. about God's curse and a ' Child of the
Evil one,' is as familiar to my memory as household words,
and it sounded like the echo of old accustomed phrases to
me. How often have I heard it accompanied with looks
and gestures that were demoniac. It always seemed to
me like the words of a demon exulting in the loss of a
human Soul. You see in their faces while they speak a fierce
malignant spleen, as though it gratified them to denounce
296 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
damnation on other souls. The best counsel I could give
any one I loved would be that which now I utter — ' Go
not into their tabernacle, O mine honour, unto their
assembly be not thou united.' I could a tale unfold, but
I dare not.
" Do not, I pray, send me any paragraphs about the insane
vanity of Spurgeon. If he were sincere, he would go down
into a coalpit or a mine and there fulfil his mission. But
that fearful pride, that display — is self, and hideous self, to
the Backbone."
"June viij., 1857.
" My Dear Friend, Mrs. Watson,
"Your letter was a great relief to me, for I had
somehow apprehended that one of the many ailments, with
which the cometicized air is rife, might have grasped you
— I say cometicized, that is, acted on by the approaching
comet, because such seems to be the general impression
among scientific men. The atmosphere around us here is
loaded with an access of electricity — the growth of all
plants and grass is supernaturally rapid. Thunder is
heard, and lightning seen. . . .
. . . " For twenty years Typhus has never raged in this,
my Parish, and I have been accustomed to link its absence
with the sound of the daily bell for daily prayer. And
now, strange to say, it has not smitten down the Church
People — but its ravages have been among the W'esleyans.
But it is always wrong to trace Earthly Chastisements to
such things, because how often are they the kindest
touches of a loving Father's hand.
"What a thought it is to think that the prediction of
St. Peter, that this Earth and all upon it will be burned
up, may be fulfilled in our very sight, and that this Comet
may be the messenger of wrath to execute the doom.
SOLOMON'S SEAL 297
How will men behave as the avenging Thing draws slowly
on — What will the multitudes in Cities shout one to
another as they gather in their streets ? And what shall
we Country People do, as night reveals the seething fiery
sky ? As I said yesterday in Church, we shall die in
armies assembled in the fields, as they do in war ; instead
of one by one. Troops together will pass away. There
is in the writings of St. Jerome, who derived his knowledge
from Hebrew Legends stored among the Jews from Enoch's
time, a prophecy of fifteen signs which shall precede the
last day. They are very like a paragraph in a paper
which I send you by this post marked with red ink, and
which relates the effects of a Comet striking the Earth."
"Julyx., 1857.
..." Pray do with my old Greek Testament whatso-
ever you deem best. I shall never resume the study of
Greek again, and if I had life to go over once more, I
would not commit to memory the contents of the New
Testament as I have done. Once I could repeat every
one of St. Paul's Epistles by heart, St. Peter and the rest :
Once I could begin the Old Testament and repeat every
prophecy from Genesis to Malachi, which related to our
Lord and His Gospel. And now when I lie ill, these all
come rushing thro' memory and brain like a torrent, till
Sleep is impossible.
..." Solomon's Seal is not mentioned in the Bible
text. ]5ut in the Hebrew commentaries, called the Talmud,
I have read many a legend in illustration of the Signacle,
as they call 'it, of the Wise King. I am very glad that
you intend to read Josephus, and I wish I had never read
it, that I might begin now. l>ut I sometimes think that I
have exhausted the usual interests of a literary life, by
having read so greedily in early life — Not that I pretend
298 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
to be a learned man beyond my fellows, but from reading
very fast, especially in Oxford, I have gone through a
vast Number of Books. And after all, as Solomon long
ago declared, what is there in many books but vexation of
Spirit ? Here am I now writing with Mrs. Hawker
opposite my portfolio, and my chief thought and anxiety
that her strength may not fail and her health return,
. . . "What fearful tidings from India! and what vast
events ! It is the beginning of the end. Long years ago
Burke prophesied that we should lose India — ' and,' said
he, 'when we are driven out from that land, what signs or
proofs shall we leave therein that we, the Rulers, were a
Christian people ? There will not be even the ruins of
former Churches.' But Napoleon the First, of St. Helena,
which was to him the Patmos of his life, he foretold the
time when the English will lose India. It appears to me
that we are on the threshold of this time. The natives of
India are 150 millions — they worship the old Demons of
their Land, not all the same Fiend or all alike in Rite and
Sacrifice — but all the Peoples have Demoniac Gods.
These are now roused, and they are urging their Wor-
shippers to fury and to bloodshed. Our Strife will not be,
as St. Paul said, with human foe, with flesh and blood, but
with the Thrones, Dominations, Princedoms, Virtues, Powers
— & these all are the names of these Battalions of Demon-
Gods."
"July xiv., 1857.
..." No man can well judge another, but it does seem
that if Lord Palmerston could but realize that at his age
(74) a sudden seizure — a touch on nerve or Brain — and he
might fall in the midst of all his Worshippers — on the very
floor of the House — a dead corpse, and in five moments
His Soul might stand a lonely Form among the angels,
LORD PALMERSTON 299
and over against him the Countenance of the Son of Man
— I think such a thought would drive me out of the
presence of the Queen and her Nobles shuddering. It is
utterly impossible that such men can ever think a solemn
or a serious thought. But they say the Premier is an
Unbeliever."
..." [With reference to a murder trial at Glasgow]
. . . There is something to me so awful in the Sin of
Cities, that I don't think I could live in one to be an
Archbishop."
..." One Paragraph I saw yesterday, that among the
natives in India there has been long current a prophecy,
that English Rule would cease a hundred years after it
began, and this beginning, they and we date from the
Battle of Plassy, fought by Clive in 1757. Is it not most
strange that they have all over the East some way of
transmitting tidings far swifter than the Electric Wire ?
How, no one knows. There are Foreigners in London who
always know distant Events long before the Government
or Papers. This must be, if true, by their Demons. We
read in Scripture that the Spirit of Python knew and could
proclaim the truth, and we are thoroughly aware that
Ages of Time have not altered a single Demoniac Usage.
What they were at Gadara or Ephesus they are this da}\
Spirits good and Evil have one peculiarity, that they are
unchangeable. And this is the vast human mistake, that
we read the Bible as if it related old Events that now are
passed away. Whereas all things remain as they then
were — Angels — Spirits — Demons — Possession by Fiends,
&c., no change in these, not one. I begin, dear Madam,
to write you a simple letter, but from garrulity of pen, or
that seductive reason that I have got a listener, I go
on till I discuss and dilate. Pray forgive my selfish
habits, atid at least believe that our thoughts & sym-
300 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
pathies & affectionate regards are with you & yours
always,"
"Aug., vj., 1857.
..." The Prayers in time of War ? Our Bishop has
enjoined us to use the Collect, and to ask the Congrega-
tion to join intercession for our ' fellow-countrymen in the
East.' The Bishop of London's Form appeared to me
the climax of vapid and unmeaning phraseology. The
Prayers which they nowadays compose are to me most re-
pulsive. They relate a long history to God ! of all the
circumstances about which they are going to pray, and then
they suggest as it were with a ' May ' or a ' Might ' instead
of a short clear plain request, as it is done in the Collects
of old. All the words which teach to pray in the Bible
are short, quick, clear signal-sounds such as Ask, Seek,
Knock.
" My letters to you, dearest Madam, on whatsoever
theme, are at your utter and complete disposal."
"Sept 6, 1857.
. . . "Your Indian inquiry as to the Sepoys is one
frequently made but to which reply is not so facile. They
are natives of India, either Hindoos or Mohammedans, and
in our pay as Soldiers. No public effort has been made
to Christianize them, because the compact has been tacitly
or indeed expressly made. Give us your bodies and your
purses and we shall not meddle with your Souls — one thing
is clear, that England has not earned their love or gratitude
or respect. We must have been in their estimation most
vile, or they would not have been so brutal or fiendish in
their warfare.
... "I was at College with the Bishop of Oxford
[Wilberforce], and knew him well. He has been here once
THE INDIAN MUTINY 301
during a Cornish tour to see me. But I never heard him
preach. He is said to be what is called High Church. I
should think him too much of a courtier to go into any-
extreme.
" I do not know much of Dr. Chalmers beyond his
lectures on Astronomy, which I read and liked."
" Septr. xviij., — 57.
..." Do you know, dear Madam, that it is a striking
thing to recall — 22 years agone (in August 1835) I came
hither to reside — I have buried one generation. The old
people — old when I came — are dead. I have baptized
another. The infants brought to me at the Font are now
young persons in Service or Settled in life, and the Children
of the tenants of 1835 are now renting their Fathers'
Farms.
. . . [India]. "One fact will suffice for ever to fill all
future history. In 1857, a Hindoo, Nana Sahib by name,
did put to demoniac death in cold Blood One Thousand
English Persons — Men, Women and Children. I have read,
I think, nearly all ancient History, and of course modern also,
but I never met with anything at all approaching in ferocity
this Man's deeds — Man I call him, but there is no doubt
he is an embodied Demon — a Human Form inhabited by
one of the Fiends. One sign of the Demon never alters,
and that is cruelty. Cruelty is the distinctive feature of the
1 9th Century. Consider Palmer — Dove — Bacon — Madeline
Smith — Spollen, &c., and you find the principal point in
their characters is selfish cruelty. A Tchutgar, say the
orientals, i.e., a Demon, never weeps — is pitiless."
" Septr. xxiv., 1857.
"I foresee gloomier days than these. Be
very sure (said Moses to his people) that your Sin will find
302 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
you out. And again, with whatsoever a Man shall sin —
with the same shall he be punished, or as it is put by
Shakspere into verse —
" ' Our pleasant vices
Are made the whips that scourge us.'
The Sin of England has been Greed of Gold — Lust for
Gain. In pursuit of this the Nation has said ' Tush ' to the
Most High. In endeavours after wealth all has been cast
aside — a thousand Souls as nothing to a fraction per cent.
And this went on for long. At last God's hour struck on the
Bell. The Signal was given to loosen the Demons. And
as our Lord himself said of another doom, ' It is the hour of
darkness.'
... "I recommend you to borrow and to read 'Forte-
scue's Residence among the Chinese from 1853 to
1856.'
. . . "With all thankfulness to you for your suggestion
to me to be fully employed, I must say in extenuation that
I am. My days are, I assure you, all working days (Sundays
included). Let me recall. Breakfast over, I see my animals
and Glebe, and people who come daily till eleven — then
into the Parish with Mrs. H. or alone as she can or not —
home — dine at one — till Three, read and write — Church
again — Walk if fine — home — read and write till Ten, and
after to Mrs. H. in Bed.' I read till Midnight. Your
motive, as always, is kind. You think employment would
banish thought — I wish it could. But thick coming fancies
and Thoughts that will have way cluster like Bees round
every Path."
I He would read novel after novel to her, when her si^ht failed
without knowing in the least what they were about. His eye followed the
print and his voice uttered the words, but his thoughts were far away. " All
taken from the Newgate Calendar," he remarked grimly to a friend.
INDIA 303
"Octr. v., 1857.
. . . [India], "Our Nation's doom begun. The judg-
ment of the Just one. We had the Land, we ruled the
the people — we were answerable for our Brothers' Blood.
We said 'Gold, Gold, Gold — Glut us with Gold.' It cannot
be concealed, the injustice — the recklessness of our Reign
— the tyranny, even to torture, in exaction of tax — the
manner wherein men lived down their own Christian name
— calling on the Sepoys to be baptized, and renouncing by
their whole lives their own baptism — for all this we are
brought into judgment. And how ? by loosened armies of
Fiends which have received allowance to avenge. This is
the key of the total oracle. I say it — I who sign myself
with our kindest regards to you & yours,
" Yrs. always affecly.,
" R. S. Hawker."
" Novr. XV., 1857.
. . . "Now what think you of India ? I do not at all like
the cruelties practised on the Sepoys by our Officers.
General Neill, a Scotsman, not content with mere death,
caused certain Brahmins to dabble in pools of Blood before
they were blown from the guns, because they believe it to
be punished eternally hereafter to touch blood. So he
sought to slay Soul and Body too. At the next Battle he
fought General Neill was slain. Now, what must his Soul
have felt, if it encountered the Souls of those Brahmins
separate from the flesh ? An Ancient Poet describes the
Spirits of the Slain as carrying on the Fight above the
Field in the air : if so, what ferocious onslaughts must
have ensued amid the Blue Sky of the East.
. . . "My own throat is sound, and my black cap thrown
off. Two Sundays did I officiate in it — a skull cap of
black velvet, made for me by Mrs. Hawker. The People
304 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
are accustomed to it, but I sometimes detect an unre-
pressed smile on the Children's Faces, when I catechize
them with my Cap on. I preached to-day on the image
of Caesar graven on his coin, and on the Image of God im-
printed upon the Face of Adam, and by him debased."
" Novr. xxij., 1857.
..." The Indian News we get from private hands is
awful. A Mrs. & Children, relatives to a friend of
ours, have arrived at Southampton. Mrs. with nose
cut off, her Children both hands ! ! and hundreds of others,
says she, are like her. And this is the Nineteenth
Century of Christian Time ! "
" Jany. xxxj. 1858.
" If the Life of Wilberforce you have just read be the
same which was published by his Sons with Diary, etc., I
read it immediately as it came out. Did I ever tell you
that I was at Oxford with Two of them, Robert and
Samuel, and they were both friends of mine ? I always
thought Robert the highest intellect, and no man was ever
more esteemed and respected by another than I myself
was by Robert W. When Samuel, before he was a Bishop,
came down into Cornwall collecting Funds for the Pro-
pagation of the Gospel Society, I was with him in this
neighbourhood, or rather he with me all the time. Wilber-
force's ' Practical Christianity ' was once with me a favourite
Book.
..." I have not seen the work by Dr Cheever that
you mention — indeed, unless a Ship freighted with New
publications were cast ashore, I have not much chance.
Things grow worse and worse in Morwenstow so far as ac-
cess to the rest of the World is concerned. A Coach that
A SCENE AT ALMA 305
passed through my Parish every other day, en route from
Bideford to Bude, is now stopped, and as we have no
Carrier, only the daily Post remains to connect us with
Europe."
"Feby. vij., 1858.
"Last night tidings arrived of another death (12 now
since November) : an elderly woman, 85, was found by her
Husband when he awoke in the morning, dead at his side.
She had apparently made neither struggle nor sound.
How awful it must be to such a Soul to glide away in
silence through the casement or the door — to discover the
Angel close by — to follow him, conscious of his office, and
to pass along the air while the Stars grow larger on either
side — until Behold ! The Son of Man — the Judge ! Such
thoughts will come — do come to me as I toss to and fro
in wakeful hours of night. And I say to myself. What if
the Soul of such and such a Man be asked. What was the
doctrine taught to you by your Minister about Me and My
Gospel ? Did he charge you to repent, and did he promise
to you pardon ? What did he tell you to believe ? awful !
awful ! "
"March xj., 1858.
..." I think the incident recorded by Mr. Granville
about his Son at Alma one of the most graphic Pictures I
ever read of Life in the Nineteenth eventful Century. He
went ashore, if you remember, to search for, and perchance
to bury, his Brother Bevil. He was turning over the dead,
and expecting no doubt to find the well-known Face cold
and silent, when all at once a cordial greeting, and he
turns to welcome His Brother alive and loving as of yore !
This Scene quite haunts me, and it came to mind to-night
as I opened and read your long-lingering letter."
u
3o6 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
"April xxiij., 1858.
" The endurance of that brief and introductory measure
of our life, which we begin here, in the porch and vestibule
of existence, is indeed uncertain : no one can prophecy
when the gate will be unclosed thro' which we pass at
death, but one thing is sure, that the life of the soul will
never be interrupted or broken, but will go on outside the
body just as it did within, only in another place — a new
abode — continuously and for ever. . . . You must not
grieve too deeply [her elder sister had died] for this reason.
God never sends for a Soul too soon or too late, but always
at the right and best time for that Soul's safety. He
knows all things — everything shines before Him (as in
that circle I sent to you, the symbol of Eternity) in one
visible gaze. If looking forward he saw a better time
would come for such a Soul to pass away in, God in his
pity would wait for that hour, but if he looked onward,
and perceived no better day would come but one more
perilous, then he commands the angel to bring that spirit
hence — -and it is done. Therefore by the mingled omni-
science and mercy of God the day of early death is the best
day that could be chosen for each and all.
" I change the theme. You mention with }'Our usual
kindness my verses, and you ask when I composed them.
As I always do, on horseback, or in the wakeful hours of
night. If I can but fix my mind upon a given subject it
is a relief to me at all times to compose — God ga^^e me, I
think, the power as a solace."
"May 26, 1858.
, . . "What strange events rush in to break the routine
of my remote and rural existence. On Monday morning
(yesterday) I was on Carrow's Saddle, on my way to visit
an aged sick Parishioner, when I met a messenger. ' A
A WRECK AND A CORPSE 307
Vessel wrecked, Sir, at Marsland Mouth,' my Boundary-
North towards Devonshire. I turned my Pony's head and
rode down. The usual scene was there — the beach strewn
with spars and Rigging— Sea casting up pieces of Timber
and Sails. The preventive men had arrived by chance on
one of their walks. They had picked up the Ship's
Register in a tin case. The name was the Temperance of
Padstow — a Sloop laden with Coals. The Boat also had
washed on shore. But no trace of any Sailor alive or
dead. I did my usual duty — appointed two or three Men
to search the Rocks and Shore, with a promise to them of
100 reward for every corpse they should find and preserve
from being robbed or stripped. Then home with pain and
swollen face— a cold. The Storm all night had been fierce
— Not much sleep all night — too much excited for that.
This morning, up early and out on the cliffs — the wreck
occurred only a mile by the shore from this house. About
nine I was called in by a messenger. ' A corpse found ! '
' Where ?' ' At Marsland Mouth, washed in just where the
wreck came ashore : we have left him, Sir, not touched till
you came, as you told us.' Away on Pony. When I
arrived it was a singular scene. A bright, calm, joyous
Summer or Spring day. The Sea calm. The wind gone
down. A cluster of Rocks, with Men seated around, and in
their midst on his back as tho' asleep a young man about
18 or 19, a little bruised about the face by the rocks but
otherwise a fine calm look. I removed my hat in the
presence of the dead, and thanked the men. Then I had
a temporary bier prepared of pieces of wood, and Four men
took him up, and followed me up from the rocks towards
the road, and so home. I preceded them when I approached
the liouse, to pre[;)are the usual place wherein I have laid
<.)ut and shrouded and coffined now four and twcnt}- dead
Sailors. It is not inside my house, but part of the Church
3o8 L|IFE OF R. S. HAWKER
premises. Then my next work was to write for the
Coroner, who lives about 30 miles off. The policeman
takes my letter. And now meanwhile comes the painful
part — the shrouding and placing in his house of wood — all
which comes to my superintendence, as it has for twenty
mournful years.
..." Among the minor miseries of the last few days one
has been that the Storm of Monday Night blew five young
rooks out of their nests in the Churchyard trees, and we
have them now in a Cage to be fed till they are fit to fiy.
I told you how they came three years ago in response to
my strong wish for them. The trees are very low, the
position quite exposed, yet they came and built, and this
year 42 nests."
"June 27, 1858.
" Well, dear Madam, our Revel Sunday to-day. Just as
I had finished my third Sermon arrived a Man to say he
had found the remains of another Sailor close to the wreck
of the late vessel. This is in all likelihood the Captain.
I am just back — fearful sight — head gone, trunk decom-
posed— my men are watching — a rough shell is in making
to bring him home in, and I have to send for the Coroner,^
&c., &c., half this Sunday Night — Is not mine a tangled
life ? a garment of divers colours existence has been
to me.
..." Yesterday at Ten O'clock in the Morning arrived
a Gentleman to see the Church. Shewed it him, I thought
him pleasant, learned and travelled — had a gleam of
thought I had seen him before. He knew Blight, etc.
Said I then, * Sir, do you know a literary Friend of mine,
' In another letter referring to this wreck he says, "The Charity Com-
missioner, W. H., a Barrister. I appeared before him. He and all belonging
to the Government a vast Sham, a Pantomime."
A BUSY DAY 309
Mr. Henwood ? ' He smiled and said, * I am he !' ... I
had not seen him for 17 years."
"July I, 1858.
. . . " O what a day Monday was — What with People to
call (it was our Revel day, Sunday in the week of St. John
the Baptist — Midsummer Day) — What with visits from
Parishioners — two sets of Bude people — the inquest in the
house — we had in all that day 52 people here in this
Vicarage. I began the day by carrying the Eucharist to
an aged Woman who is dying, and I was on my legs except
for one half hour till | past nine at night. Mrs. Hawker
only sees a few — a very few — unable to distinguish faces
— it is painful to her to come downstairs. How thankful,
how overwhelmed with gratitude ought we to be — we two
— my poor dear Wife and I — so many long and weary
years that we have fought the battle of life together —
pilgrims and sojourners, with few and far between that we
could call friends. The Garden of Eden before, and behind
a howling wilderness.
"July 24, 1856.
..." Every day for a week a thick hot mizzling rain
and a gloomy mass of clouds coming down as if to crush
and stifle Man and Beast. And the tokens amid the corn
have undergone a total change. Now we dread, and with
reason, rust and mildew, a meagre kerneling, that is the word
for which in Cornwall we use the term ' kerning.' My own,
which was so noble in aspect, is now laid — only in spots
yet, but, as I dread, this heavy pall of moisture will pro-
strate more. It reminds us what we are beneath his touch
who will command the clouds that they give down or
withhold our bread.
. . . "Two other aged persons have been well nigh
3IO LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
terrified to death by cruel threats of removal to the Union
House ; both are over 84 years. The Board of Guardians,
almost totally Dissenters (two out of our three are local
preachers), remove paupers according to their caprice, in
utter disdain of law and justice. Here, for instance, they
inflict no discipline on the mothers of unlawful Children
who in other Unions are compelled to go into the House,
but they pick out the extremely aged who ought to be left
to be near the Church and Clergyman, and drag them
away 8 miles to die. Mrs. Hawker has been in the habit
of giving the aged who die calico for a shroud ; they have
now decided that if any pauper receives a gift towards
burial, the Union pay for the funeral is withdrawn. Is it not
fearful to live in such a fierce and savage place ? "
"July 31, 1858.
... "I fulfilled your wishes as to conquest of temper
in meeting those who had very bitterly wronged me. My
thoughts are too full of the end of all things to give room
for earthly strife. But nothing rancorous occurred ; the
absorbing theme, like Moses' Rod, swallowed up the.
serpents."
[In allusion to his wife's failing health.]
"Aug. 22, 1858.
..." What a fearful thing is domestic life. We weave
ties that we deem are as our own duration, while not a
fibre that binds us to others is in our own power. No web
of the Spider is more fragile than the Household Home.
A touch upon heart or brain and, Oh ! Merciful Master,
where are we ? Blessed Jesu ! thou didst inhabit a happy
home at Nazareth, Bind and Shelter us!"
WALTER SAVAGE LANDOR 311
"Aug. 27, 1858.
..." Have you heard of Mr. Landor and his libel ?
When I was at Oxford his Poetry was in vogue, and I read
it ; but he was always utterly void of Religious Belief, and
now the end of these things is death."
"Oct. loth, 1858.
" I detest the whole system of Union Houses. When
we remember that our Blessed Saviour said, ' Whatsoever
ye do (good or evil) to one of these (the poor) ye do it
unto me, and I will remember it when I come in my glory,'
this I think should make us very careful how we treat the
Poor."
"Oct. xxiv., 1858.
..." Your next question refers to a decree of the
Pope forbidding the adoption of the name of Mary for a
child. This must be because it is the name of our Lord's
Mother, and as it is forbidden to call a boy by his name,
so I conclude it is decreed that a girl is not to bear hers.
But this is only a guess of mine. I had not heard of it
before."
"Deer, xix., 1858.
" Home once more from Wellcombe, and through such
a storm of Hail and Wind and Thunder as I have seldom
encountered. Carrow to the Saddleflaps in Water passing
through the brook. But she behaved beautifully and from
speed I am not wetted to the skin. The Storm came on
while we were in Church here this morning, and the Roll
of the Thunder mingled with the backrake, as they call it,
of the ground Sea. The Church was black with gloom,
and the pale Faces of the People were in solemn contrast.
It put me in mind of the verses ' The Sea and the Waves
312 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
roaring, men's hearts failing them from Fear,' and also of
Bossuet's Advent Sermon, wherein he said, ' What if this
Roof were at this very instant to cleave asunder, and we saw
through the rent the Son of Man coming in the clouds ! '
It is said that all the congregation rose up suddenly and
stood trembling.
" You mention the proposed arrival of your Relatives in
Bath. There is an old English Proverb which hints thus,
Love your relations, but live not near them.
" The Queen's Proclamation seems carefully drawn.
Every word is by Lord Stanley, the Premier's eldest Son.
He is a correspondent of Friends of mine, and is regarded
by those that know him as a more thorough Radical than
even O'Connell himself. There will be a strong uproar
about the New Reform Bill when Parliament meets.
They talk of making many millions of the lower orders
voters ; if they do, Victoria will be the last of her Race to
wear a crown."
" Deer. 26, 1858.
"Just home from Church, and just finished my Sixth
Service in 48 hours — Five Sermons since yesterday morn-
ing— none in the morning of Christmas Day, because of
the Eucharist. But the weather for Ten days has been
very very awful and exceedingly strange — Thunder, Hail,
Rain, and Storms of Wind. On the 22nd the Lightning,
sudden, as its own name, smote the arm of one of the
maids and deadened it. Hail as large as marbles came
against our glass like shot fired from a gun, and is it not
strange, altho' many windows in various parts of the parish
were broken not a pane was cracked in the Vicarage or
Church. Yet the Storm came from the North West and
the Sea. We look out on that Point. Since that day
nothing but change from rain to Gales of Wind — a lull —
DEATH OF A WRECKER 313
and a Storm again. And yet, altho' torrents fell yesterday-
morning, and evening, and again to-day, my rides to and
from VVellcombe have been safe and my poncho dry.
"The whole country side is excited about these storms,
and the people connect them with the death of a Mr. , a
Merchant of Boscastle and a notorious wrecker. As soon
as a Ship was seen he used to mount his horse, and never
leave her out of sight until she came ashore, when he would
take possession, and make enormous profit by charging
Salvage, etc. He did so in Morwenstow twice. Ten days
agone a Man called Jabez Brown living at Boscastle was re-
turning at Night when he saw sailing up the Valley from the
Sea a Cloud filled with bright fiery light. All the Sailors
also saw it. It glided on over 's House, and passed inland
up the glen, until it reached a Church to which he be-
longed and where his Family Vault used to be and is.
This sight so astonished Brown, that he wrote an account
of it to The Times, and there I read it. On Sunday evening
this day week went out on the cliffs, and was seen
watching the sea, it is supposed for Wreck. He returned
quite well and went to bed. At 5 in the morning his
Servants heard him walk about his room. Then his foot-
steps ceased. He had returned to bed. At Six O'Clock
a vast roll of the Tide came up the Harbour, and one of his
Vessels broke loose. The Servants went up to tell him —
knocked — no answer — again — silence — frightened, they
went in, and there he lay quite dead. His head upon his
hand. Ever since that day it is certain the storms have
been continual — again and again with violence, and while
I now write my Table trembles with the wind. All this is
awful. The Enemy of Man, you know, is called the Prince
of the Powers of the Air, and what allowance of the demon
there may be always overruled for good we cannot tell.
It always struck me as a warning that when the demons
314 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
were cast out of the man, and because they must rage
somewhere, asked leave to enter into the swine (a forbidden
herd to the Jews), it was granted, and they rushed into the
Waters and perished there."
"May the ist, 1859.
"To-day my text was from the Gospel, 'Peace be unto
you ! ' our Lord's favourite Salutation. But the thanks-
giving for Peace was strangely marred by the Tidings of
vast, fierce and cruel War announced at the same date.
Often have I said in Sermons and in conversation, A Day
will dawn of English humiliation. The unholy Laws which
have been a Nation's Sins will have their retribution. I
for one believe this is the beginning of that End. The
cruel Poor law — The unrighteous robbery of God's Tithe —
the Sanction offered to unlawful marriage and Divorce.
' Shall I not visit for these things, saith the Lord, and shall
not my Soul be avenged on such a Nation as this ? ' The
first Napoleon used to say, ' A time will come when
the World will be Cossack or French.' I have said hun-
dreds of times ' Why not both ? ' There have been
prophecies floating through the East for many years that
the Turk would perish as a Power, and the Frank would
reign from the Holy City, i.e., Jerusalem. My thought is
this : Napoleon has offered to Russia Constantinople and
Turkey on condition of his retaining Egypt, and receiving,
when they divide the Spoil, Malta, Gibraltar and Jerusalem.
Meanwhile England must fold in her horns and be once
more an Island only. What can raise up an Army here ?
Multitudes of Soldiers from the Crimea crippled but of
only a short Service, and so no pension, are in Union
Houses — the Militia, disbanded without clothing, are filling
our Parishes with their murmurs — and now they want
more. Would it not have been far cheaper to have paid a
FEAR OF INSANITY 315
paltry penny Church Rate than to lose the Angel Michael
as the rebellious nation has lost ? But they have robbed
God, and now where is their hope ? They can no longer
say, ' My hope. Lord, is in thee.' "
"May 8th, 1859.
"Your letter is indeed a touching History of human
trial — saddest of all the tidings and the tale contained in
the paragraph of print. Saddest to you, the Friends and
witnesses from without, of that which Johnson (Dr. Samuel)
calls the most mournful aspect of human misery. But
whether that unconsciousness of self which is the usual
accompaniment of mental loss be not intended as God's
especial alleviation of the awful judgment, we cannot tell.
To me the theme is full of unapproachable awe : re-
membering, as I do, a time when stretch and worry so did
their work upon my harassed brain, that I knew not for
long who sate and watched by my bed of danger. After-
ward, I found that my poor Wife had been my well-nigh
unaided Nurse. But I must not revert.
" Of your other Nephew's troubles I deem lightly.
Young, healthy and active, he can leap ' the crossing
stones of the brook ' without injury beyond a little delay,
and the lessons we gather from experience are of faithful
admonition for final good. Sometimes I say, if I could
but be set down now with youth and health upon a lowly
vantage ground, the World should hear of me. But still
Time and the Hour would again whiten the hair and
paral)-ze the hand.
" Do not, I pray you, mistake me, as if I felt or could
feel the slightest sympathy with France, or that bold bad
nian her ruler, or that I failed to appreciate the religious
blessings of our native Land. Far, vcr\' h'ar from that. But
as I know and bewail my own transgressions, and repent
3i6 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
them deeply and long, so do I perceive that England has
many a doom to anticipate for national Sin. The senate
is the seat of guiltiness, and there are laws adverse to the
Spirit of the Gospel which must be paid for."
"Junexij., 1859.
..." On Friday Evening at 5, a bustle at the door
meant some visitor. On going down I found Sir T.
Acland, who had brought from Bude to drink tea the Earl
of Harrowby and his Son Lord Sandon. They stayed
till I past Nine, and went home by Moonlight. They
seemed very sociable. The Countess not long since died.
He, the Earl, was Lord Privy Seal in the last Ministry, and
expects, I think, to hold office again."
"June xix., 1859.
"Another Sunday added to the Past — one week
nearer to that journey through the pathless air to the far
and awful home. This is Wellcombe Revel Sunday.
The Doctrine of the Trinity is the Pearl treasured up in
the Casket of that simple Country Church. It was
founded by Nectan, Brother of Morwenna, about 950 A.D,,
and the day of its consecration has been celebrated for
Nine Centuries of Christian Time on the Trinity Sunday
of every Year. So it is something to say, that a lonely
and rustic Sanctuary here by the Sea has kept and
counted 900 Revel days — and this it may be with me
the last ! "
."Julys, 1859.
..." I grieve to say that I think my temper is not
so equable as once it was.
, , . "We see by the Papers that the Queen has con-
ferred the Order of the Garter on the late Prime Minister,
'^ptOjULOv yeXacrfxa 317
Lord Derby, and on our late Guest at tea, Lord Harrowby.
He was looking well, it is said, whereby, Mrs. H. says, we
infer that his health did not suffer from a thick slice of
Bread and Cream which I spread for him. I have had a
letter from him this week, most kindly transcribing a
passage from Catullus, a Latin Poet mentioned in our
Conversation,"
"July X., 1859.
..." Another letter from Lord Harrowby. I therefore
send you (to keep) his first, that you may see how an Earl
and a Knight of the Garter can lean upon his Pen. I
shall write him a long letter as soon as I have time."
T/ie Earl of Harrowby to the Rev. R. S. Hawker.
" Westbrook. June 25, 1859.
" Dear Sir,
"A Catullus having fallen in my way, I have
transcribed the lines, which had occurred faintly to my
recollection, as confirming our impression, that the
TTovTtwv KVfjiaTMv dvr)pLd[xov yeXacTjxa described the sound,
and not the appearance of the waves. ^ You will observe,
that the corresponding word, cachinnus, is used by the
' Compare page 192 ; also William Watson's lines —
" Not since first thy wine-dark wave
Laughed in multitudinous mirth : "
The extract from Catullus transcribed by Lord Harrowby has not been
kept. It was probably that splendid simile in Carmen LXIV, —
" Hie, qualis flatu placidum mare matutino
Horrificans Zephyrus proclivas incitat undas
Aurora exoriente vagi sub limina Solis,
Quae tarde primum dementi flamine pulsae
Procedunt fUni resonant plan^ore cachinnt),
Post vento crescente magis magis increbrescunt
Purpureaque procul nantes a luce refulgent."
3i8 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
Latin Poet to describe not the loud lashing, but the
gentle ripple.
" Yours, my dear Sir,
" Very truly,
" Harrowby."
To Mrs. Watson.
" Septr. XXV., 1859.
"You mentioned China, and the war. It is hardly
possible to sympathize with such a people. As a Nation
they are Infidels, and from disbelief in a Future state they
have no Fear of death, and suicide is their most usual
mode of extrication from distress. If an army were sent
large enough to decimate their population the nine
parts would take no warning —
"As to the Great Eastern, this is my opinion. She was
built in audacity, instead of trust in God : a large Ship, so
large as to disdain peril at Sea is built. When finished
they dash a bottle of Wine at her Bows in travesty of
Christian Baptism, and they call her after the Demon.
Leviathan is the name of the Great Enemy of Man in the
Scripture. It means the wreathed or coiled Serpent,
With such a baptismal title how could she prosper on the
Element sacred to the Rest of the Spirit of God — ''(it
moved on the face of the Waters) ? I foretold evil, and
now it comes.
"There is more in Names than men usually deem.
Said the Romans, Nomcn omen. Now Nonien is Latin
for name, and oinen means a foresign. So they mean.
The name is often ominous of the life. Said the old
Forefathers, Nomcn Numen. Nnmen means God's Grace,
and I read it, as the name leads so grace follows — and as
' Cf\\\h line — " Yonder that couch of God."
WRECKS AND CORPSES 319
we are baptized so we are. How fully this is born out by
events. My name ^ means strength, and whatever I think,
or feel, or do, I do strongly. This is a wide field, but I
discover in the title given to this Iron Ship an augury of
her destiny. Nothing wod. induce me to sail in her."
"Dec. nth, 1859.
" As Sir Wm. Herschel foretells another and a fiercer
Hurricane than the last (in Oct.) before 1859 expires we
live in dread. Full fifty years it is said since we had a
storm such as that which so fearfully injured us in October.
My Barn is not yet fit to use. And the search for the
Bodies still goes on. Limbs are cast ashore every now
and then, arms and legs, and at Hartland joining Well-
combe, lumps of flesh have floated above High water, and
been buried in the ground. Five out of Seven Corpses
had no Heads — cut off by the jagged rocks ! ! It is
indeed a fearful country to inhabit. You asked me why
other Clergymen objected to my mode of burial. A plain
history will reply. Six Corpses were cast ashore at
Northam, near Bideford. They were carried on ladders
(laid along) to the nearest hut — inquests held — put into
boxes without shrouds or any other decency, and buried
at a cost of 10/- each man. Now ours are always brought
to the dead-house adjoining the Church, and are attended
to by the Sexton's Wife, and shrouded like any other dead
—measured for the coffin, and buried according to their
station in life. And the charge we make to the County is
40 - besides what I outlay. Do you not see that this is
enough to excite the sarcasm and the rebuke of those who
do otherwise. But enough of this. Since 1843 I have
taken up from the rocks and buried 27. But to me the
great comfcjrt is, that the scjuls of all these men are grate-
' Rol)crt from rohur.
320 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
ful to me for the respectful interment of their bodies, and
that all they are permitted to do for me they fulfil. That
they have brought me tokens of goodwill I am persuaded.
Do you know, I was surprised to hear you doubt that the
dead know what we do. I thought the Scripture clear
about this. Besides, how otherwise can we account for the
appearance of Spirits for especial purposes to the living —
And that they do so appear everybody in every nation
under Heaven believes. Did you ever see a Book called
' The Night side of Nature,' by Mrs. Crowe ? She is well-
known to many of my Family. One of these stories relat-
ing to my Grandfather used to be told us years ago. It is
many years since I read it, and I do not vouch for all the
contents, but still, it is a Book that I think you would like
to read."
" Jany. i., i860.
" There is to me nothing more awful than to stand as
we do to-night on the threshold of an unknown year, and to
reflect that they know in God's presence what will befall us
one by one ; they understand, altho' we do not, which of
us will live through this year, and who will not, while we
pass on like men stumbling over graves by night, towards
the Valley of the shadows unwittingly, and in a moment
the veil may be rent before us, and we may see the angel
and hear his Voice — ' Follow me.'
. . . "I have been very much shocked at the death
of a contemporary, once called Babington Macaulay,
now a Peer, Lord M. He died nearly suddenly last
week. I corresponded with him once, and he mentions
me in one of his Volumes of History. I know not yet
the cause of death. The thought appals me, how
many I survive ! many whom I thought would out-
live me."
THE LORD'S PRAYER 321
"March 4, i860.
. . . "To-day I rode through rain to Wellcombe, but
the clouds Hfted while I was in Church there, and this
evening has the smell and look of Spring. I was also
yesterday afternoon at Wellcombe to bury twins, Seven
months children — a daughter and a Son — one had lived
two hours, the other a day and a night, both baptized in
emergency by the Surgeon who came to the mother. The
entries looked odd in my register book — such dots of
human life — the last before them was, ' A corpse cast
ashore : name known only in Heaven.'
. . . "Your next inquiry is about the Lord's Prayer.
So far from thinking as Socinus did, that it was only given
to the Apostles to use while they were Jews, I regard it,
as not only the most perfect Model of Human Entreaty
ever breathed into words by God the Holy Ghost, but in
itself the strongest compulsion on God the Trinity that
Earth can pour forth to Heaven. The Angels glide and
gather like Eagles at the first faint signal of its sound.
The Sevenfold supplications condense and deliver all that
God can bestow. . . . God knows best how he wishes to be
spoken to, and God gave with his lips of flesh this bound-
less Prayer."
"March xj., i860.
"You are perplexed with that mingled gathering of
great events contained in the Four Gospels. These Four
MSS. may be called, as we should now write. Memoirs of the
Messiah — ^just as Books are now published containing
Anecdotes of Great Men, written as they occurred to the
Writer, and as one event or saying suggested another.
Nothing will clear this to you like a series of dates which
I will draw up. When you have read them, remember that
the Gospel Zc'^jt preached, the converts baptized, the Clergy
322 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
ordained, the Doctrines taught and known, from 50 to 100
years before the New Testament was written or read.
Hence they do not contain that System which was already
in full and fixed existence before a Gospel was composed
or an Epistle sent. Unawareness of this fact is the great
Hindrance to clear Understanding Holy Writ. Why, it
is sometimes asked, do not the Scriptures say what vest-
ments the Clergy should wear ? — All their apparel, all their
usages, were enjoined by the Apostles, and all in practice
many, many years before a leaf of the New Testament ex-
isted upon Earth. . , . They (the Apostles) carried the
Doctrines in their Breasts. They delivered them with
their voices and hands. They converted cities and people,
and from the year 34 till the year 100 all this went on.
They proclaimed — converted — baptized — ordained
Clergymen, as Timothy at Ephesus, and Titus at Crete.
Afterward one or two would write a Letter on some
particular occasion and to some casual cit}' — Ephesus —
Colossae — Rome. These Letters were afterward, after 100
A.D., collected together, and called the Epistles. Once now
and then, after about 60-6^, some place or person would
desire a written collection of some parables, some miracles
of the Lord Jesu. So St. Matthew wrote a parchment
scroll for the Hebrews — St. Luke wrote one for a Friend
who knew all about the Gospel before, but still St. Luke
thought fit to draw up a clearer MS. : Read the first verses
of St. Luke. St. Mark compiled for Rome an epitome of
St. Matthew. Last of all, about 100, St. John wrote a
Gospel to rebut a number of false doctrines on one or two
points. But all these Writings were casual — occasional
and supplementary ; they contained no set statement of
doctrines ; all these were known before they had the
Apostles' creed — no consecutive or formal record, because
the history had been delivered by the Twelve Witnesses."
"WHERE SHALL I DIE?" 323
"March 18, i860.
..." No one ever remembers the aspect of the wheat-
ridges so mournfully unpromising. I preached to-day from
the Gospel 'Gather up the fragments that remain that
nothing be lost ' — and meaning that the bread which our
Lord had touched and blessed was not to be trodden under
foot and treated with disrespect, but to be honoured and
treasured as the hallowed gift of God. Whereas, when
wheat was low in price a year ago, many Farmers here
gave it to their swine — a Sin for which they now are
punished."
" March 25, i860.
. , . "The Farmers have a proverb here that good
Wheat in March should cover a sitting hare. God help
us, for he only can."
"April ij., i860.
" I sympathize sincerely with you in your change of
home. I think I should die on the road if I were com-
pelled to go among strangers. Sometimes in those vigils
which sleepless habits induce, among the thick-coming
fancies is, Where shall I in all human likelihood gather up
my feet and die ? Not here, I think, not here. Did you
ever read that there is among animals a knowledge of ap-
proaching death, and they have in the desert and the
Poorest some covered haunt or Cave to which they resort
for their final pain ? Buckland and others have so ex-
plained those caves in Mountains full of fossil bones.
They are supposed to shrink from many witnesses of their
last struggles, and to seek out those places, where other
animals have perished, to die alone. But I must not dwell
on this theme, for my heart drags down, and the e}-es fail
the pen. Thank God, we, who are bought with a price,
324 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
cannot, if we would, go away from God. When we change
abodes, we merely pass from one part of God's presence to
another part around us in simple existence, like the
element of light clinging to our skin — so that we are never
alone — never free from the access of God. Thank God for
such an oracle."
"April 15, i860.
. . . "To-day at Nine I went to Wellcombe, had Com-
munion Service only with the Eucharist — no Sermon —
home here at Eleven — the total Service and Sermon over
at One — at | past 2, Evening Prayer and Sermon at
Wellcombe again — Back to Evening Service and Sermon
here — Very much exhausted I am, but I thank God that I
can do it at all. I have the thought, which no doubt
encourages many a poor labouring man, that is, that I am
the Breadwinner of the House. If you ask in earnest
whether I would be Bishop of Cornwall if I could, I answer
' A thousand times no.' One only horizon bounds my day.
To carry on life and strength as long as my poor dear
Wife shall want a sheltering and a succouring hand, and
then, when I have fulfilled the final duties of life for her, if
God grants me to live longest and to die last, then to
gather up my feet as the Men of old time did, and enter
into rest. This was my answer when Sir Stafford North-
cote, himself in those days a Minister of the Crown, asked
me what my ambition sought, what preferment I would
ask for if I could, and I replied, ' Nothing that would call
on me to move from this roof for a week or day.'
" I was much struck with an answer, or rather a remark,
made to me not long ago by an aged Parishioner — a
bedlying old Man — 82. I said to him, ' I have been to see
Granny Olde to-day, and she is ten years older than you.
She is 92.' He smiled a cheerful smile, and said, ' 92 ! I
DEAN LIDDELL 325
hope the Lord will not leave me here so long as that — Ten
year more. No — No — if it please God — too much o't, Sir,
meaning no offence.' Was not this a singular frame of
mind ? But the Old Man is a wonderful specimen of
simplicity and merry suffering, if I may use the word — in
anguish, too, from rheumatism.
..." I like your extract, and I shall not return it unless
you require it. I have in my Calmet's Dictionary a plate
of Ebal and Gerizim, the Mounts of Anathema and Bene-
diction, with the tribes passing through — Moses, Aaron
and the Levites on the Hilltop. Once a Parishioner
shewed me a Paper of directions how to overcome his
enemies, which was given by a White Witch. It was to
be read at every gate, and it consisted of the curses in the
27th Ch. of Deuteronomy."
" Aug. 27, i860.
..." We have had a visit to-day, on their road from
Bude to Clovelly, from Dr. Liddell, the Dean of Christ
Church, Oxford, and his wife. Both very affable and kind.
She was the daughter of the Earl of Strathmore. They
are both a great deal at Court. He officially as chaplain
to the Prince Consort, and she as a Guest of the Queen.
They speak in the highest terms of the Prince of Wales.
His disposition and temper are courteous to the extreme,
and his morals unexceptionable. Dr. Liddell told me that
the distrust of the French Emperor at Court is complete,
and among the ministers not one will believe him sincere
towards England except Gladstone."
" Sept. 2nd, i860.
..." I have been shaken and depressed exceedingly,
as you will understand when I tell you that for 30 years I
have known and associated in my profession beyond the
326 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
common usage of the Clergy with Chancellor Martin.
He and Lady Jemima, his first wife, sought acquaintance
with me when I was but a Deacon, and his position after-
ward in all matter of Church Law, especially my law suit
with Sir John Buller, brought me into his contact and
notice continually. If I had been asked to name the Man
of strongest nerve, and calmest brain, and also of sturdiest
health in the Diocese of Exeter, I should have said at once
Chancellor Martin. And now, in a few short hours, that
nerve prostrate, that strong intellect shattered, that brawny
frame prostrate, is indeed a Shuddering Astonishment.
Who is safe ? Which of us can confide in what his own
will shall resolve, or what his own fingers may do ? . . .
No one can answer the Apostle's, ' What is our Life ? '
They say Exeter is in total gloom — the Bishop utterly
prostrate, and the Cathedral Clergy walk about pale and
silent. Such a deed was never before done by a Man in
such a Rank of Sacred life. It will be a sad blow to the
Church." [Chancellor Martin committed suicide.]
"Sept. 9, i860.
. . . "You do not mention your Books. I hope you
have some amusing volume in your hands at this time.
I never advise a theological work for any one in a sick
room. Nor do I ever read such myself when I am an
invalid."
" Sepbr. 23, i860.
... "I used to wonder when Strangers said of Mor-
wenstow, ' I would not live there for the world. Eight
miles from a Medical Man ! ' But I have lived to think
that we are in that respect forlorn. When I lie awake at
night, and think that days are fast drawing near when the
nurse and the Doctor must be sought to move about the
"FRAGMENTS OF A BROKEN MIND" 327
room, my heart fails me exceedingly. What can we do ?
And germs of malady incident to years admonish my own
poor carcase to beware, lest the silver cord be loosed, and
the golden bowl broken, and the mourners go about the
streets.
" I have looked up lately a Mass of MSS., the jotted entries
of long years, and gathered them not into bundles to burn,
because they contain, I think, sentences of great value to
future Scribes and Students of the Oracles of God. How
will strange eyes wonder, and voices that I shall not hear
repeat the words of the former Vicar, the fragments of his
broken mind ! What, I wonder, was the purpose of my
life ? Why was I rescued from the Knees ? All was done
for the wisest and the best : of this be very sure. But still,
I wonder why — O may God grant that I may have bound
up the wounds of at least one by the wayside ! that I may
have carried a cup of cold W^ater in these hands to one for
whom Christ died. If I have been his Vicar but to one of
his lowly ones, I shall not have lived in vain."
" Nov. xi., i860.
..." Our people have a saying, in the truth of which
I fully concur — it is
" ' The wind that cometh from the East,
Is neither good for Man nor Beast.'
At all events, I can declare before I get up in the morning
if it be in that fatal quarter, by an increase of the heavy
and depressing weight, midway in the pit of the Stomach,
which is too often my drag on the wheel of life. God give
us a light bosom at the last day."
" Novr. 25, i860.
..." They say in foreign countries that we in England
can be eloquent only on one topic, and that is the weather.
328 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
but when we do consider how much depends on it with us
it is no wonder. Health and digestion, and God's Worship
in Church, all hang upon the Clouds and wind. . . Our
aisles are so cold, so forlorn, that it is a relief to me to hear
the word from Mrs. H., ' I am afraid to-day.' To me it is
become the House appointed, for underneath the place I
stand to read from I must lie down at last to moulder, and
never do I officiate but that thought grasps and drags this
weary heart of mine like the nether millstone."
"Dec. 2, i860.
. . . " I do not allow Mrs. Hawker to regard it as a Sin
not to go to Church in all weathers. . . Your text may well
be now, looking at the younger and the strong — ' Let
Chimham go,' 2nd Samuel, Ch. 19, v. 37. Although we
are not as old as Barzillai, the principle is the same, and
we may in such cases of ill-health and infirmity stand
excused. . .
. . . "And as to stimulants — I cannot drink even one glass
of wine without actual suffering. I wish I could. But when
I was so ill, and so near death in 185 i. Dr. Budd told Mrs.
Hawker that he had never encountered in all his practice
so excitable a tissue as that which held my Brain. He hinted
that any great trial or sorrow would in all likelihood over-
whelm my mind, and he then prophecied what I have since
^ found fulfilled that my safety lay in a subdued and low diet.
I refer to this peculiar texture my wakefulness at night. A
cross parishioner or an angry correspondent has power o\'er
my sleep a whole night."
"Dec. 23, i860.
"My pony, my dear little Carrow, carried me to-day
thither, that is to Wellcombe and back, fetlock deep in Snow,
THE "VERA EFFIGIES" 329
and without a single slip or blunder. Still, I was very thank-
ful when I found myself at home again in safety.
" You ask me from what sources we derive our knowledge
of the actual Face and Form of our Master and Lord, The
Period of the world's History in which he lived on Earth
was remarkable for Sculpture, for Fresco, and Medalling : a
priori,One: so remarkable even as a Man would be pourtrayed
and at all events described. The First Verse of the 3rd
Chapter of St. Paul's Epistle to the Galatians is deemed in
original Greek to refer to a Sculptured or a painted Repre-
sentation of our Lord's Person and Crucifixion well known
in Galatia. The woman who came behind him and touched
the Broidered Border of his Mantle was a native of Ceesarea
Philippi. After she was healed, she caused a Statue to be
molten in Bronze, an exact likeness of our Lord, with Her-
self kneeling at his feet, and with her hand stretched out and
laying hold of the Flowers worked on the Band. This
statue existed in the year 400 A.D., and was then described
feature by feature and point by point by Eusebius, a Church
Historian. The print which I enclose, and which I obtained
from a Friend last week to send you, contains a well known
outline of The Blessed Face, as it remained on a Napkin
which he took from the hands of Veronica, as he carried his
Cross towards Calvary, and when he gave it back to her the
outline of his Face remained on it in tracery of Blood and
Sweat. You will remark upon it the selfsame Countenance
as I have described, only wrenched into anguish by his
Sufferings at the time, liut these likenesses are chiefly
valuable as they corroborate and confirm the accounts which
exist in books contemporary with the Times of the Apostles
and thence downward. One writer compares his aspect to
that of James the Less, and States as one reason of the Kiss
ot Judas that it was to distinguish him in that gloom of
night from St. James. Then another describes his
330 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
Mother's face and form, and records the fact that
as he was man of the Substance of his mother,
in the words of a creed, as he derived his flesh and bones
and Limbs and Stature from Her Veins, he was likely to be,
and was, like her in Face, and Hair, and look, as Murillo,
the Spanish Painter, delineated the Mother and her Son,
"Well, there is then a consent, as it is called among all
the Church Writers, as to every feature — every shade, of
that Noble Face, when they come to describe it, until about
the date A.D. 700. Nicephorus, a well known Authority, re-
lates in exact language all that I have transcribed for you,
and from that period until about 1560 every Painter, when
he tried to represent our Saviour, never presumed to
alter one Feature of the received and recorded Face.
After that date Painters, such as Raphael ^ and Correggio,
began to paint from Models, and then the Aspect began to
vary, until now there are as many Christs (so called) as
there are Painters. They chose some Person in the
Crowd whose Shape and Features struck their Fancy
and that Model became their Christ. This is to me rank
Blasphemy. Said the Angel at Bethany to the Apostles,
' This same Jesus shall so come in like manner as ye have
seen him go.' That which he was we know from recorded
Semblance. That which he is therefore we know also.
His eye is not grown dim, neither is his natural force abated.
That which he will be, we can pourtray in The vision of
our minds. I advise you every night before you sleep to
call up, and to shape before you, his actual Form and Face,
and let your thoughts slumber into prayer, ' even so Lord
Jesu Come.'
" And now, my dear Friend, use, copy and impart any-
thing that I have written as you like. It makes me glad
to find anything I can write will interest you."
' Compare pp. 226 and 257.
ANOTHER CHILD-MURDER 331
"Jany. 6, 1861.
" A week of anxious misery — The Police backward and
forward — letter on letter — the last now enclosed — no inquest
— and the remains of the murdered child buried, without
Service, by the Sexton alone. But how many things I have
to answer and to clear up. You ask me why notice was not
given to the Minister of the Parish. It was. Am I not
the minister of Wellcombe, where the body was found ? If
it had not been my parish I could not have interfered. But,
being in my own Parish of Wellcombe, the whole fell on me.
The Coroner simply refuses to do his duty — the total guilt
falls on him. A medical Man would ascertain the Sex
of the Child, But without a Coroner's Warrant no medical
man can examine the corpse. A Girl is suspected, but
except on an inquest no suspected person can be examined.
The cause of death was a broken skull, but only by and
before a Coroner could any formal evidence be taken. Very
Strange. On New Year's Day Coroners' fees were
abolished by Act of Parliament, and a Salary substituted,
which the Coroner will receive the same whether the
inquests are many or few, and it is predicted here in Corn-
wall that the Coroner will but seldom come in future. O
what evil times we have to dwell in ! My only redress would
be to lay the case before the Secretary of State, who would
in all likelihood dismiss the Coroner. Some years agone
I should have done it but my spirits and energy are
unequal now. He is a lawyer of B , once Member
for that Borough, and called, from his boisterous habits,
Roaring Dick. It is beyond belief His chief argument
is, ' Because the corpse is so sviall, therefore its murder is
too trivial for an inquest, and utterly beneath my notice.'"
" Jany. 20, 1861.
" A kind of prophecy of thaw rather than an actual one
332 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
has softened the ground aUttle to-day under my brave and
gentle Carrow's feet. At Wellcombe the mourners filled
the seats, as the custom here is always on the Sunday after
the funeral. The remains of the poor child were buried
by the Sexton alone without Service, and thus the little
unit was withdrawn from the great Sum of human life.
..." The Revivals which you mention are to us in
Cornwall too well known. They occur along this Coast
every year — every month — every week, until the grave and
sincere Dissenters as well as the quiet Church-folks regard
them as ' full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.' The
vast and mighty Gift of the Third Person of the Trinity
on the day of Pentecost was to deliver inspiration to twelve
men, and no more — the Apostles — nobody else there.
And that Gift of the Holy Ghost was a proved Fact by
the miracle. Every one of the Apostles became able from
that hour to speak, to write, to spell Foreign Languages,
that they had never learned nor known. What analogy
is there between this Descent of the Spirit on the ordained
Apostles and the claims of a promiscuous multitude, who
are not Apostles and never can be ? "
"Feb. 3, 1861.
" I have gone thro' my duties of to-day amid the anguish
of a pain which few regard with sympathy or compassion,
the toothache. My number is but scanty — four above, five
below, providentially in the middle of the Front, or my
articulation would be destroyed. The Archbishop of
Canterbury is said to be so toothless that even his text can-
not be understood. My voice, which is of a kind called by
the Italians a breast tone, meaning deep down in the chest,
has always been thus far strong and distinct, and I have
for a long time practised using the breath and throat only,
so as to be prepared for the worst. I have so determined
A BUDE ROMANCE 333
a resolve never to admit false teeth in any event, that I
hardly know what would ensue — but then the people who
come here with the mouth filled with artificial teeth so
mumble as to be unintelligible.
. . . "My Sheep thus far again are well, my earliest
lamb is expected about the 20th of this month, and no
Farmer will have any before me. Under my Vicarage
Barn is a Sheep Fold or Pen, with two doors which shut up
at night. There sometimes at night I go with my Old
Man, who carries their chaff — cut hay — and I the lanthorn.
A pleasant and a peaceful sight. They all know us, and
push our hands away to get at the Food in the Manger.
..." Some time ago a Captain B. (Merchant Service)
brought his newly married Wife to Bude to lodge, while he
went to Sea. She was a Spaniard, young and beautiful
and brown. He sailed. Last Week a letter arrived at
Bude for Captn. B. immediate. She opened it. It was
from another and a previous Wife in Liverpool ! What a
Scene of adventure and romance for our rustic watering
place by the Sea."
[Re opening of the Vault of the Granvilles in Kilk-
hampton Church] : —
" But the strange thing was this. When they opened
the Vault first they found Sir Bevil Granville's lead Coffin
— that in which he was brought down from Lansdown, near
Bath, where he died in battle — they found this massive
ponderous Coffin out of its place, and cast, as it were, on the
other side of the Vault, towards the door — it took 20 men
with iron levers and implements and chains to mov^e it
back again. This Coffin, too, was broken, and the Body
having been embalmed, a man had taken away thro' the
aperture a lock of the beard. We have often talked of
this, and altho' Lord John ' had a theory that the gases from
' Lord John Thynne.
334 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
the corpse might have lifted il, everybody knew this
could not be. I had the curiosity to inquire thro' a friend
of one of our first Chemists, who ridiculed the notion. All
this happened two years ago.
" About a fortnight agone I received by Post from Kelly
a little Book — a sixpenny Tract or Pamphlet called ' Death-
Deeds,' and it related to events to me clearly of a super-
natural kind, which occurred in a Vault of the Island of
Barbadoes, when Lord Combermere was the Governor of
the Colony. There, in a Vault of arched and massive
stone — with a door of heavy stone locked and barred — the
same disturbance had existed again and again. Leaden
Coffins, which had been laid every one in a Niche apart, had
been hurled away, and cast one of them upright against the
door — an infant's of lead also had been cast into a corner,
like a loose stone. The Coffins were laid in order in Lord
Combermere's presence, fine sand sifted over the floor,
wherein any footstep must have been imprinted — the Stone
at the entrance was cemented in its groove, and the
Governor's Seal impressed on the cement. A year had
nearly expired when Lord C. had to return. But He went
with his staff to examine the Vault. Seals entire : cement
unbroken : dust on the pavement : no print of any mark :
but, the leaden Coffins cast on End out of place, on
head and side, without one broken. . . . With me, such a
Book once read remains for ever. I think this remote and
rural Neighbourhood has been the Scene of exploits and
marvels enough to fill a three volume novel."
"Feby. 17, 1861.
"When I was ordained Deacon and Priest, among my
vows, one was to adhere to every ordinance, and to fulfil
every Rubric of the Book of Common Prayer. One of
these enjoins the usage of a fixed Service for the First day
A CYCLONE 335
of Lent, commonly called Ash Wednesday. So far from
its being Popish, it was drawn up by Persons who detested
Popery to the Death. My own rule is to follow, I hope
meekly and simply, the rules and laws of those above me
in the Church, and to leave controversy and cavil to
public men.
..." Very many instances have occurred of late
throughout the land of the cyclone, or local Whirlwind. It
bursts all at once down through the air on some particular
circle of ground, and beats everything in its path into the
PZarth ; it rushes round and round like a vast wheel, and
then passes away. But outside the path of local whirl,
seldom more than a mile or two in extent, this hurricane
is neither felt nor heard.
..." But a singular, and well-nigh beyond natural,
event occurred in Poughill, Carnsew^'s Parish, on Thurs-
day Night last. One billowy flash of lightning. A single
roll of thunder, and a Pinnacle with bulwarks was
smitten off the Tower, and stones from it were hurled in
and thro' a neighbouring roof
..." You ask me whether in my opinion the air is
full of inhabitants which are Spirits, messengers to and
fro. What my opinion may be is but of little value — it is
written in the express language of God's book that so it
is. Besides the verses to which I refer there are 200
or 300 which tell us the air is inhabited and not by
men.
" P. S. — I have just heard that the damage done to Poug-
hill Church will cost ;!^i50 to repair. We hardly perceived
the Storm. A White Owl shrieked at Flexbury every
night the last year of Mr. Carnsew's life, until the Night
he died. That Night it ceased and has been never
heard since or seen. I mean by shrieked the usual
hoot."
336 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
"March lo, 1861.
" The stern and silent march of Time ! on, with inevit-
able tread, and on — and we in this remote and solitary
place with no events to mark the lapse, none to count by
— why, it makes one shudder to find we have just kept the
fourth Sunday of another Lent, and that Easter is once
more nigh. The days, too, lengthen — which word
shortened as our Saxon Fathers uttered it in their quick
sound, into lenten — give us in their very name the Time
of Lent. ' Forty days', say the Evangelists, ' tempted of
the devil ; ' harassed all that time by the Great Swart
Demon, chiefly in the semblance of an Ancient Hebrew
Man. Well, it is to me a fearful thought that Lent in
every year seems to be the chief Time of the Demons. I
see them, as it were, loose forty days. The Fiends are the
Princes of the air. They are allowed to rouse the Whirl-
wind and to urge the Storm, and every Lent I mark the
prevalence of the Fiend in atmospheric violence as now.
Their influence has, of course, a limit and their evil is
transformed into good by Him who is stronger than they,
but ' this is their time and the power of darkness.' God
grant us in the carcase of the lion the honeycomb, and on
the dark cloud that beautiful bow which the hand of the
Most High hath bent.
"To me God has been very kind. The angel of the
Flock has succoured their master."
"March 31, 1861.
"We Human Beings occupy the visible surface, pass to
and fro upon the ground. And all the while we know,
for it is revealed, that myriads of shapes, nothing but soul,
come down, go up, glide close so as to touch us, occupy
the arch of air, watch and ward us by command,
tempt and try also — stoop down to search into the
A PAUPER'S FUNERAL 337
mysteries of our Religion — and that in every crowd, if we
could discern as angels see, we should distinguish them by
their foreign aspect and unearthly raiment. How any
one can waver in this belief, or rather knowledge, if he
reads the New Testament, is to me marvellous. Was not
our Saviour soothed on every occasion by the messengers,
or, as they are too obscurely called, the Angels ? Last
week in Gethsemane, and to-day at his awakening in the
Tomb. This reminds me to wish you a happy Resurrec-
tion ! as is the fitting Easter Salutation. In many distant
countries the greeting is ' Christ is risen,' and the answer
' He is verily.' God make your grave, dear madam, the
Gate of Heaven to you and yours."
"May 5, 1861.
" On Monday Evening I buried the first Pauper that
ever came to me from the Union Workhouse — an aged
Woman of 90. She was brought without attendants
alone, in the Union hearse. The driver, and a lad from
the Carpenter's who had made the Coffin, took out the
Corpse and laid it at our Churchyard gate. My Sexton
came down horrified — ' Sir, there be no Bearers ! ' I went
up — Surplice on. I had to send East and West till I had
induced Four Men to come, and to bring the coffin to the
Church, and thence to the Grave. No Mourners — No
Parish officer — none — by myself and casual Bearers.
She was a meek and humble old Creature, called Mar\-
Cloutman. Once I said to her in visiting, 'Yours is an
odd name, Mary ; who were your Parents ? ' ' Parents,
Sir } I never had any. No, Sir, I was found in a basket,
tied up to the Mayor of Torrington's door, with a little
pink frock on. I never knowed who my Mother was. The
Woman they got to nuss me was called Cloutman, and so
I tookcd her name.' Is not that a strange histor)- ? Born
V
338 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
an orphan — a solitary life — for she never married — and a
very lonely Burial, as I can testify. If there were not a
God to receive her Soul, what would life have been to her ? "
"May 12, 1861.
..." I was reading lately in Stanhope's life of Pitt, that
he never failed in small courtesies, which many great men
neglect, and thereby lose many friends. This struck me
the more that I am myself conscious of such omissions,
and that I always appreciate kindnesses of that kind when
I receive them, as we all do."
" June 2nd, 1861.
" There is a text in the Prophet's Book which I often
think of, and which seems to suit many of us ever and
anon. It is this : ' It hath pleased the Lord to bruise him :
he hath put him to grief.' It is said of the Messiah or
Christ, and it suggests to us this painful and yet soothing
thought, that there are occasions when God for our good is
the Giver of grief And there are wise and merciful reasons
to justify what a heathen would call this cruelty of God.
It is like the grasp of a Father on the shoulder of his child
when in a path of peril. Besides the palpitation, which
frightens me, in Mrs. Hawker's pulse, too, too, often, inso-
much that a day and anight hardly can pass without it, my
own heart seems to give way in every sense of the word, so
that it is often more than I can well bear. My daily and
nightly prayer for years has been that God will spare me
to sustain her to the last, and when I have fulfilled
the latest duties of love that I can render to her, then let
the angels do their office for my poor Soul. But now the
thought comes, and it will come, What if she in her infirm
age should be left alone with not a hand on Earth to hold
her up — not a voice to cheer her in a World that is to her
ARCHDEACON PHILLPOTTS 339
already dim ? (Oh how I dread increasing failure of sight !)
But I assure you others, and not myself, suggest that I have
aged, and been more broken lately than could be supposed.
At Bude, on Thursday, at the Visitation, the Archdeacon
said, ' Why, dear old Hawker, how haggard you are grown.
I hope those wretched Dissenters do not worry you ! ' I
answered,' No, I have survived all that'
" But I will not depress one who will I know sympathize
with me, and therefore to change the theme.
" After church he, the Archdeacon, proposed a walk
upon the sand, and accordingly as usual we went off together
for an hour and half . . We talked about Oxford, and the
commencement of our acquaintance there. . . He heard me
recite my Prize Poem of 'Pompeii' in 1827 (34 years
agone), carried it home to his Father, then Dr. Phillpotts,
Rector of Stanhope, and so he first introduced my name to
the future Bishop, who gave me this fatal gift of Morwenstow,
where I invested my poor dear Wife's Fortune in Roofs &
Walls to cover Strangers when I am gone."
" June 9, 1861.
" W'hile you have spoken of thunder, lightning, and
rain, the latter twice, we have absolutely had nothing but
one bleak and arid sky, the Earth iron and the Heavens
brass. . . It is as though the command had been issued, ' I will
command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it.' . . My
Spirits are always so depressed by dryness and East
Winds, that these alone are enough to drag one down to
the very earth. ]^acon, the Earl, used to go out into
his garden when soft rain fell and take off his hat, and sa}',
' It is as if I felt the sweet Spirit of Heaven descending
upon me."
. . . [" /\6^ question of Mrs. Watson separating from her
Sister.] Nowithstanding all the provocations, and these I
340 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
grant are fierce and extreme, and in spite of all the pain of
turning your cheek to the smiter, and bearing all things,
enduring all things, I cannot advise an absolute breach.
My rule is in such straits always to imagine whatsoever
may come to pass, and then conceive how I should have to
act in such and such a case. Now suppose you separate
and settle each in a home. Let sickness supervene, and
death draw nigh. At tidings of your Sister's danger, jyou,
for I know your good heart, tender and true, will make
haste to encounter journey, removal, fatigue, pain, till you
stand by the bed of disease or death. Never would you
surrender a Relative to the touch or care of others, nor
allow her to pass away amid the ministry of hirelings.
Again, on the other hand, I am fain to think, that if yours
were the attack, and hers the duty of vigil and aid, she, too,
would forget her past coldness and desertion, and say
within herself, I will arise and go to my Sister and say, I
have done wrong, here I am : let us be loving in our lives
and in our deaths not divided. Believe me, if, as it is said,
" ' One touch of Nature makes the whole world kin,'
how much rather shall the strength of Nature avail to bind
up the wounds of the bruised in heart. When the proverb
said, ' Blood is thicker than Water,' it referred to much
more than the mere tie of family — it breathed a principle
which beats with our hearts and flows in our veins, and
which none can gainsay or subdue. . . Still, and to return :
It does seem the reason why God has thought fit to
surround us with chains and fetters of Relationship — that
these ties might bind to us certain hearts and hands when
the love of many is waxed cold. I see and understand the
depth and gravity of the sacrifices which you will have to
make. But what is life but one great sacrifice for others
THE BAR OF MICHAEL AxNGELO 341
and not ourselves ? We are saved by the great Sacrifice of
one innocent for others guilty. When we suffer most, we
are the most like our Blessed Master who died, the just for
the unjust, to bring us to God. I saw with personal
sympathy how one word of yours uttered hastily entered
like iron into your own soul. How would you be able to
endure such a deed as separation from the only living
Sister for whom your heart has beaten so long in sympathy
and love ? "
"June 16, 1861.
" Yours is an interesting account of your Sister's
physiognomy and Stature. That kind of curved nose
which you describe is said to indicate pride with a justifica-
tion, like the Duke of Wellington, or vainglory devoid of
reasons to justify it, as in ordinary life and people. It
was thought in old times that the ~j~. Cross of Adam, as it
was called, when developed in the human face was a good
feature. The brow bone — that projection at the base of
the forehead along which the eyebrows curve, called the Bar
of Michael Angelo, ^ because in his face this bone was
prominent and straight — this made the transome or top of
the Cross ; the ridge of the nose descending from it more
or less prolonged but straight made the Stock or shaft of the
Cross, and both together the T, i.e., | , gave expression and
force to the face and Features. This Cross of Adam was
called by the Rabbins ' The Tree in the midst of the
Garden,' and was deemed the characteristic feature of the
countenance of man. Of course, in a female face it could
not be so distinct, but the curve or bend outwards they did
not pronounce a graceful feature in a W'oman."
' Compare Tennyson's description of Arthur Hallam —
" And over those ethereal eyes
The bar of Michael Antrelo."'
342 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
"July 7, 1 86 1.
. . . " It was on Sunday night, ^ past lo, when the
Servants, going up to bed, saw the Comet, and one came to
our door to tell of it. Our Window faces the Sea at West
and North West. We watched it, or rather I, for poor
Mrs. H.'s sight could not. I got every book I had about
such matters, and Almanacks, and found that no such
Comet had been foretold. So at I2 O'Clock, I came into
this room and wrote Cowie, Canon of St. Paul's, Senior
Wrangler at Cambridge in 1852 (I think), at all events a
very learned man in such things. He is Queen's Inspector
of Schools. He lectures, too, on Astronomy at Gresham
College. To my surprise, mine was the Second letter only
that arrived in London to announce the Event. It is
supposed to be a Comet of 300 years orbit. In 1556,
when last it appeared, it induced the Emperor Charles the
5th to abdicate his throne ; and in 1264, it was thought to
predict the death of Pope Urban the 4th, who died that
year. The Chinese records relate its appearance in 975,
accompanied by direful events. But, as I wrote to Cowie,
'What about the vaunted science of the 19th Century,
when a Servant in a Cornish Vicarage comes to announce
to her Master the arrival of a Comet which ought to have
been calculated in every Observatory in England, and
foretold to a single night years and months before ? '
Whereas this Sudden Stranger of the Sky takes the World
by surprise. The cloudy Nights have intervened since
then to hide it, but last Night, and at certain intervals
before, I, who am always vigilant at night, have been able to
see it opposite our W^indow over the Sea, ' bristling with
horrid hair,' as IMilton writes.
. . . "I thank you for the offer of the Book you name.
But my mind has been so long made up about the equal
duration of future punishment and future reward, that I
ADAMS AND LEVERRIER 343
will not ruffle it again by dipping into the exhausted
controversy. When I was a young man there was
a loud and learned strife between a Cambridge Pro-
fessor and an Oxford Dean, on that topic. I went
into it, as I did in those days into all things, and
the conclusion at which I arrived was that the
doctrine of the early Church was that the same
words being used to denote both, both were alike
Eternal."
"July 14, 1861.
" I hope you have by this time seen the Comet, It
forms the great object of interest now to all Europe, not
only from its own intrinsic interest but because of its
totally unexpected arrival. All others are predicted and
announced, even in the Almanacks of the current year, but
this is literally a sudden Stranger of the sky. Leverrier,
the famous French Astronomer, the man who shares with
Adams ^ of Cambridge the fame of discovering the Planet
Neptune — he has published a long statement in the Papers
of the novel features of this wonderful and sudden Comet
of the Sun. I have condensed all that can be said about
it, I think, into verse, and I am going to publish it in some
paper — when it is printed I hope to send you a copy with
perhaps some notes in Writing to explain the lines — About
Seven Stanzas in the measure of my lines on the ' Lost
President.' We have no Nightglass, and now the Comet
is disappearing with great velocity night after night. The
distance at which we have seen it is 17 millions of
miles."
■ John Couch Adams was horn at Laneast, in Cornwall. Hawker has a
poem called ' The Signal of Laneast/ bur not about tile astronomer.
Hawker's verses on the Comet were printed on a leaflet.
344 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
"Septr. I, 1861.
" My Dear Mrs. Watson,
" 'Good and Evil glide together,
Like two Shades of April Weather :
Not till Rain and Cloud are past,
Can the Storm-Bow gleam at last.'
" Surely the Seasons are types of our human Existence.
Good chequered with evil, yet good prevailing after all.
..." In answer to your remark rather than inquiry, I
do not in my heart approve of the modern system of
National Schools. To teach children to read, and it may
be to write, and in cases to cipher, may be a duty, but when
as now the Master and Mistress are pushed up into almost
equality with the Curate and his Wife, and when the
Children are instructed in branches of knowledge to which
I hardly had access at Oxford, this is unnatural and there-
fore wrong. When I was ordained Deacon, 50^ a year
was thought a good Salary for a Curate. Now no Master
will come to take a National School under £60, £70, and
£100. Mistress in proportion. What ensues ? The
Schoolmistress dresses above her station, can chatter glibly,
and assume a confident uppish manner : sometimes the
Curate marries her . . . and often a Young Farmer,
Chancellor Harrington, Manager of the Normal School in
Exeter, laments that a large proportion of Masters and
Mistresses, after enjoying all the opportunities of the
College at Exeter, go off into other lines of life, and after a
high Education which costs them nothing, forsake the
Church, and sometimes enter the ranks of her enemies.
This is one among many of the signs of our total want of
discipline and power. So I am the more reconciled to my
subdued School and to my cripple.
..." No ! I do not like Hymns. First of all, I know
TWO FACES UNDER ONE HOOD 345
of none to be compared in value or in sound doctrine with
the very worst version of David's Psalms. Every Hymn
that I ever read is more or less tainted with unsoundness
in thought or in expression. Besides, how they utterly
destroy uniformity — the great object of our Church and
State ! How they revive the state of things condemned
by St. Paul in his Epistle to Corinth, where one has his
Psalm, and another his doctrine, and another his Schismatic
name. Give me the sweet singer of Israel — the Son of
Jesse — the Bethlehemite.
" Good luck have you with your Baptist Servant.
" You mention the Cross. God forbid the Cross should
belong to any one body of Christians more than to others.
. . . "I earnestly hope your new Servant will behave
well — if so, never mind what sect. He or She can't be
wrong whose life is in the right."
"Sept. 8, 1861.
..." You rightly infer that [a clergyman] is not to
my taste. I will tell you candidly why. It is now clearly
understood that Lord Palmerston and the Government will
not make any man a Bishop, unless he is popular among
Dissenter's. This is to me horrible, because we swear at
our Ordination to do our best to drive away all strange
Doctrines, and now men are expected by the State to
encourage and foster Doctrines that every man of sense
knows to be untrue. K. expects a Bishopric. No sooner did
he find that Wesleyans formed the majority of Parish,
than he began to preach and to talk Wesleyanism. I
confess I did not, and I do not, like two faces under one
hood."
"Octr. 13, 1 86 1.
" The equinox shook our Seas ten days agone, and when
the Demoniac Ship, The Great Eastern, oncQ the Leviathatt,
346 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
or Serpent, when she was caught by the gale off the Irish
Coast, Her Course was in a direct Hne with this Channel,
as you may see by the map. This is my dread every winter
— a Wreck, with a large crew — drowned corpses and late
Burial — God shield us !
"Your account of the Curate's dismissal is sad. I fear
from what Mr. L. has disclosed, that an imitation of
Spurgeon is deemed a necessary trait in a Curate's quali-
fications among many Rectors nowadays. Nothing will
satisfy in London, but extempore preaching, which very
few are competent to fulfil — a loud, bold, impetuous manner
— repetition to weariness of words without meaning —
verses quoted over and over again, and without the least
connexion with the subject of discourse — in short, Jabber,
Gesture and Noise. L. confessed to me that he and many
other Clergymen went to hear Spurgeon, and those who
can copy him. Yet they know that he is a Sower of Tares
in God's Field, and they have all sworn at their ordination
to root out all false doctrine, and to utterly destroy it.
But nowadays so rolls the world."
"Novr. lo, 1 86 1.
. . . "Do you remember, or did I mention, Mr. Granville
of Warwickshire ? He and his Wife came here from Bude
some years since, and stayed a whole day, inquiring and
writing down memoranda about the old Granville family.
Ever since, he has occasionally written to me, and I to him.
He calls himself, and he is, the lineal Male Heir and sole
representative of the Beville Granville Famil}-. Lord John
[Thynne] derives thro' the Female Line. When the last
Earl of Bath died, Wm. Granville, there was a lawsuit, and
the Lands were given, b}' a Judgment of the Courts, to
Lady Jane and Lady Grace, the Aunts of the claimant by
male descent.
AMERICAN CIVIL WAR 347
..." Your question is a natural one as to the Second
Body.
" With regard to the employment of the separate soul
waiting for the Body, there may be and are many. All the
functions of the Soul, which are done here in the flesh, go
on uninterruptedly — Memory — recognition — sympathy
with their own families, generation after generation — fore-
knowledge of the future life in the City yet to come —
Vision of many worlds seeing them in the Glass of God —
recalling friends and kinsfolk, and greeting them as they
come in one by one."
"24 Nov., 1 86 1.
. . . "On Thursday night, we were astonished at receiving
tidings from the nearest Farm house, that the Son-in-law
and the daughter of the Farmer's Mother had suddenly
arrived from Wisconsin in the United States ! Next day
the Man, a Mr. Northey, came to call on me. He had left
the States, and brought away his Wife in manifest fear for
his life and safety, leaving his grown-up children to occupy
his Farm, and, as he said, to 'risk it.' His account of the
state of things is quite appalling. Brothers divided, and
in opposite armies — so bloodthirsty that they made boast
they would select their own blood-relations to fire on from
choice. He said that their hatred of England is intense,
and that nothing but their war with each other prevents
their attacking our Canada. I asked him what they
expected among the Americans would be the result of this
war, and he answered endless bloodshed. If cither side
sliould conquer they cannot combine the States again under
one Government, or hold them ever together again as One
Dominion — they arc all utterly demoralized — fear neither
God nor Devil — no one man can ever control or iiifiuence
another. When they go into battle, the Officers on both
348 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
sides are obliged to watch their own ranks, and to shoot
down numbers of their own men who are preparing to fall
out of line, that is, to desert their regiment for the enemy,
or to return home. No discipline anywhere. They seem
to live well so far as coarse and common food can supply
them, but now every farm is in danger of being visited by
the enemy, and after being fed to the full, they burn the
combustible, and destroy the remainder. So far as I can
gather from this man, who speaks as an eyewitness, it is the
English Civil war in the time of Cromwell carried on with
a thousand-fold ferocity — and there being no King nor
Great men to rule and to repress in America, it may never
be pacified or quenched more. How strikingly one such
Witness as this man brings before the mind the existing
horror more than all the papers that are published."
"Deer. 8, 1861.
... "I think I may assume that you are somewhat
habituated to the loss of your pet pussy. True, as you
suggest, the uninitiated cannot guess how one mourns for
a dear animal, but then what do the wise men say ?
Lavater, the Physiognomist, in his rules for judgment of
Strangers speaks very plainly. If you are at a loss for
hints as to the character of a new acquaintance, watch
how they receive the caresses of a dog or a cat. If they
repel and drive away the animal petulantl}-, then avoid
their society, for be very certain that in their temper and
disposition they are harsh, and selfish, and arrogant. I
have never seen the token fail, nor did I ever see a true
and noble nature, but a kind love for the animals was
always a prominent point. No one whose opinion was
worth having ever condemned a pet. Come, now, let me
say a strange thing but true. Our Blessed Saviour
sanctioned indulgence to pets. The term for little dogs is
CHRIST SANCTIONS PETS 349
in the Greek ' Kynaria/ and it is the exact phrase which
would be used in that language for King Charles and
Blenheim small spaniels. Well, when the Woman, the
Syrophenician, pleaded with Jesus for her Daughter, altho'
she was a Gentile and an alien in those days from God.
Altho' He at first to try her said coldly, using a Syrian
Proverb : ' It is not meet to cast the children's bread to
dogs,' yet when she made answer and entreated saying,
' Truth, Lord, yet the Kynaria — the favourites — the pet
dogs — are fed with the fragments that fall from their
gentle Master's Table,' Jesus favourably received her reason
— sanctioned the practice — allowed the special favour
shown to the petted animals, and so, because of that plea
of hers, he granted and approved her prayer. Now hence-
forth let no one say that indulgence to animals or their
favourite companionship is wrong."
"Deer. IS, 1861.
... "I must not forget your poor lost pussy — how can
I, when I am reminded of him and you every time Grand-
fcr, as we call our youngest Male cat, forces himself into
the room ? How you would wonder to see him. In
Spring when he finds a bird's nest, he brings the young
ones up in his mouth, one at a time, and drops them
unhurt by my chair. A whole nest of the large
sized Tom-tit that he so served were carried back, and
lived to fly away, Grandfer being shut up till they were
fledged. He has brought up a young mole and a frog — a
most intelligent cat."
"Deer. 22, 1861.
..." I fear that your poor pet Pussy will return no
more. Yet still you may have the sad satisfaction (as I
had) of hearing one day his fate. It was a long while
350 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
after my Kit's death, that a Man, going to America, sent
me word from Plymouth that he and another man had
gone out by night, hazing, that is to say, setting wires and
nets for hares at the corners of the field and gates, when
after turning in their dogs to hunt, they heard a rush
and a scream and found the Parson's Tom cat throttled in
a wire. They were sorry, he said, and frightened and
thought it safest to bury the cat. It was after all some-
thing to know, that my poor fellow did not suffer much,
and was buried in the Earth. So say I to you, Some one
will confess by-and-bye when danger of punishment is
diminished.
" My text this morning was Isaiah, Ch. 14, v. lo-ii —
spoken by the Souls of the Antediluvian Kings to the
Soul of the King of Babylon, when he entered Hades, and
applied to the Soul of the Prince Consort of England."
" Deer. 29, 1861.
" I do not augur much comfort to you from reading
Swedenborg. I read his writings some years agone when
they were first published, and at once detected the im-
posture. He is said to be in reality a jew, but, be this as it
may, he is not a real Christian. If he had called his Works
Speculative Theories, or even Fantasies, their injurious
tendencies might have been subdued, but pretending to be
real, he comes into the category of Falsehood and heresy.
No account of a State Future to us that is contradictory
to Holy Writ is fit to enter a Christian mind. I thank you
for your kind offer to send me his Books, but, as I have
said, I already know them too well."
" 1861.
" As soon as the tidings [of the death of Prince Albert]
came, I did all I could ; had the Bell tolled for some time
at intervals of half a minute, which brought people to in-
DEATH OF PRINCE ALBERT 351
quire. Poor Man ! how terrible Death must be to one so
Great — so indulged by Rank, and Wealth, and opportunity.
He could hardly have had an ungratified wish. He had
called around him nearly all that was possible for man to
possess, and yet he could not remain a moment among his
possessions — durst not tarry one second when the angel
came and stood by the bed, with a countenance and form
visible to the dying man altho' unseen by all beside — and
at the moment fixed by God, that Messenger lifted up his
hand for signal that meant ' Follow me.' And the Prince
immediately became, as it were, two Men. One lay upon
the couch languid, silent, dead — a corpse. The other, ex-
actly alike in shape, and stature, form, and face, stood by
that bed — Alive — but airy — ethereal — light — as it were
moulded of Breath and Light, a mere and living Soul. It
was to this, the Spiritual Body, that the angel beckoned
' Follow Me.' Thus the double Man was divided into
Two. The One of Flesh and Bone lay there waiting for
Burial. The other, which was a Spirit — the Royal Soul —
glided with a gradual motion after the angel, and nothing
hindered or retarded their egress into the air. Then their
path is traceable — away and afar off, to the Place where the
Lord Jesus in the same Bodily Form wherein he went
away at Bethany, lives and dwells and waits, that Soul
after Soul, as it severs from its Flesh, may come before
Him to receive the first judgment. There are for us all
Two Times of Doom. One, single — personal — particular,
when each by himself as he departs from the Body goes
alone (except for one angel), and stands before the Son of
Man — to learn from the Voice and the lifted hand of Jesus
how it will be with him from that hour. The other Judg-
ment is the public, general Doom of the Souls, of all em-
bodied again, the Valley of Armageddon, where the Lord
went up — at the end of all things, the last of the Da}-s.
352 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
The First of these, the Private Interview, the Personal
decision, the particular Judgment, the Soul of the Prince
underwent the Night he died. It must have been a
Solemn Sight. A Scene to make the Angel thrill and
droop. There stood our Judge — Jesus, a Man of like
Feelings with the Prince, yet a God also — remembering
the Earth and having learnt Man by Heart — knowing how
the hearts of Kings and Queens beat — understanding them
afar off. There before Him a Soul called by name Albert.
How the Memory of the Prince must have overflowed with
recollections of all his past life — every deed was there at
once, as in a Glass, alive. How he must have called to
mind his vast opportunities of multiplying the honour and
worship of that same Jesus. How the Prince must have
throbbed all over as he remembered the worship down
below in the Chapel at Windsor — the Abbey of English
Kings — the Creeds — the Prayers — the Psalms. How he
must have watched those awful Hands of Jesu, Lord of
life and death. Which will he lift ? Aye, Prince Albert,
which ? If His Right Hand — happy thou. If His Left —
Better thou hadst never been born. And all this as
actually, as really, came to pass eight days agone, as that I
now sit here, as that I write and you read. What a scene
to conceive ! the arrival of Two Figured Forms as of men
at the Gate, the Signal of the Guide, ' A Soul ! ' ' The
Severed Spirit of One who just now was Man.' His
name ? ' Albert of England, Prince ! Enter and bow the
knee — And He so lately Chief in a Royal Court — so
accustomed to Pageantry and Pomp and Pride, so wont to
order and command. He shudders in alone — without one
companion — not a human friend. How he must have
called to mind the Sermon of O'Neil at Liverpool, wherein
he compared the visit of The Prince Consort to that city
to the Advent of the Son of Man. Well it is a vast a most
THE VICAR'S DOG 353
unutterable change — And altho' she bears it now, for it
takes time to realize such woe, yet I tremble for the balance
of the Queen's mind. She has in reality none to cast
herself upon and weep out her Soul. The Islanders of the
Pacific in Honolulu call a King by a word which signifies
The lonely one, because their lofty Place is shared by none
and they are therefore Solitary above their People.^
Sympathy can only be complete among those who are
equal."
"Jany. xij., 1862.
..." I do not hesitate to call the loss of your pet a
trouble, because to me there could be none worse. To you
I do not scruple to confess that I should feel the death of
my poor old Newfoundland Berg, who is now in his i8th
year, — my faithful friend of so many years — more than
that of any relative I now possess. I don't mean to say
with the same kind of grief, but as the loss of — that deepest
loss of all — the daily, hourly loss of the watchful eye, and
the constant caress. When the Singers w^ere here on
Christmas Eve, Mrs. H. took my arm, and went down, as
the custom of many years has been, to speak a Word or
two before they went. She took a chair, and I saw Poor
Old Berg become conscious or aware all at once that we
had come in — so he got up and went round sniffing at
ever}^ Person's legs till he came over to us, and then he
found out his Mistress, and lay down with his nose and
neck across her feet as happy as a King — And he came
here as a puppy in 1844."
• Compare Hawker"s lines in the ' Quest of the Sangraal ' —
" But he, the lofty ruler of the land,
Like yonder tor, first greeted by the sun,
And woo'd the latest by the lingering day,
Alust soar and gleam in solitary snow.
Tile lonely one is evermore the King."
354 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
"(Jan. xij., 1862.)
. . , "So your wish and mine also is gratified, and War
with America is not to be. They have given up the
Prisoners, and made ungracious atonement. It is, I am
told, the opinion among the Ministry, and in the Clubs in
London, that tho' Peace is for a time secured, the angry
Spirit will smoulder still, and burst out anew at no very
distant time. So jealous are they as a people, and so
sullen and malignant is their present temper of mind,
that they will brood over their present humiliation, and
their native-born dislike to England will grow fiercer and
fiercer every year. Certain it is that there is something
naturally narrow and meagre in the American mind.
There is not, it is said, one original Book among their
Publications.^ Nor a single Master Mind as an Orator, or
a Poet (Longfellow is tuneful but mediocre) or Statesman
or Divine. They copy England with a second rate power.
Where they do succeed it is in a dexterous manipulation as
a Smith or a Builder might. And what can equal in
horror their mode of Savage War ? They offer rewards
for the head of conspicuous Enemies — Maury the
Hydraulic Officer to wit. Their light Infantry the Zouaves
carry ropes with a running noose to hang their Prisoners,
and they have destroyed it is said for ever the Harbours
of the South whence Corn and Cotton were shipped for
half the World."
" Jany. 26, 1862.
" I never deem a week lost wherein as in the last six
days I have prevented the appearance of two parishioners
in that abominable Scene the County Court. A more
' In connection with Hawker's criticism of American literature may be
mentioned a note in which he says : — "Holmes the yVuthor of 'Elsie
Venner ' is materialist to the Backbone."
THE COUNTY COURT 355
wretched encouragement of strife could not have been
planned. In the former times if one man owed another a
few Shillings or a pound he waited a while, and always
eventually got it. Whereas now the Creditor, urged on by
a sense of importance and too often a temper of revenge,
resorts to the nearest office, takes out a summons, adds to
the debt a large per-centage, and after the scene in Court
and the vindictive language the debt is paid, and then
added costs, and two neighbours are enemies for life. The
very dread of the court makes many a life miserable.
Therefore was I very glad when the two men agreed to
adjust the payment by gradual Sums, and to divide the
cost of the Summons between them, and shook hands in
my presence amicably.
" I relate this Event to you for reasons. Victories of
this kind are^very usual in the course of a Country Clergy-
man's life. I myself revert to them with the chief satis-
faction of my ministry. Are not such things of more
value than a popularity for eloquence ? What pleasure
can there be on one's Bed of Death, to remember a fine
discourse or the applause of a multitude in comparison
with the noiseless delight of peacemaking and loving-kind-
ness'to the Poor in Spirit whom the Master loves ? "
"Feby. 9, 1862.
..." With regard to the Book of Days, Mr. Godwin a
friend of Robert Chambers sent it to me gratuitously and
suggested my contributing to it. If I am to be paid for it
I will, but no other motive has power to move me to lift a
pen for such unavailing vanities as name or Fame. For
all such impulses my answer is, ' Too late, too late.' There
is a great deal of good sense in your reasoning that praise
might have spoilt me and flattery would have made me
proud. But if I could have realized some money while my
356 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
Wife could have shared it with me, if I could have earned
what would have made her more comfortable, it would have
given me a not unworthy pride and much consolation.
" What a success is Tennyson's. All that now he writes
the Booksellers pay him for at the rate of ^lo a line.
Neither Milton nor Shakespeare ever imagined such a
requital in coin. And often I think None ever surpassed
those Two Men in Fame and this World's adulation. Yet
what did they think of all that Five Minutes after they
were dead ? If one of us could now enter where they
dwell — each a mere Soul — and we were to relate to them
how famous their names and writings were here among
men, how would the Spirit of each of the Two turn away
ashamed of this Earth and all that are thereon, turn and
be glad to forget the sinful breath of the Race of Adam
and their praise.
" I do not think and I have told Chambers so that the
Book of Days will be a success like his Journal and other
Serials. The taste of the Public is not now towards
Antiquity. The Past has no Attraction nor I fear has the
Future. It is the present only that now fastens on the
English Mind.
..." There is a great deal about Beards which is not
commonly discussed. A Beard in the East is a very
different thing from the European Beard. Travellers in
the East find their Beards glossy, soft, and rich and flow-
ing. But when these very same Beards arrive in Europe,
and especiall}' in England, they become dry and meagre
and rusty and poor. Whence many men infer that while
the Beard is an ornament and a Grace on the chin of
Shem, Japhet ought to shave."
"Feby. i6, 1S62.
..." At Poughill on a set day the Belfry was filled with
Ringers to inaugurate the Bells — two had been recast.
THE FIRST LAMB 357
The first prize was won by the Stratton Ringers, second
Marham Church. Mine did not join — indeed we have
but Four Ropes, and such a Peal of Bells can teach no one.
Strange all my life long I have absolutely longed for a
musical Peal of Bells to cheer one up on entering Church,
and I never had any but a jarring Peal of Four at Tamerton
and Morwenstow.^
" Thank you for the cutting about Beards which I
inclose. The Author, Mr. F. Buckland, is a Son of an old
acquaintance of mine, Dr. Buckland, that well known
Oxford Geologist. Francis, his Son, who wrote the
Paragraph, is now a Roman Catholic — he is a Surgeon in
the Guards, and the Author of several Works on Natural
History. I have not seen or heard from him since he was
a boy."
"March 2, 1862.
..." Did you ever hear the saying that if the first lamb
be a lady the Mistress of the house will govern for that
year, and if versa vice the first be a gentleman then the
Master. Well my first lamb was a ewe, and so the sway is
Mrs. Hawker's. Poor dear Soul. What I would gi\-e to
be assured that she would govern me and mine this year
and more to come.
..." And now my dear friend for a History of another
great sorrow. Yo7i will understand, Yoii will not deride or
disdain my talc of grief. My poor dear old Dog, the
faithful friend and companion of upwards of 17 )-ears, is
dead. He had crawled out to his wooden house at the
liack door on Friday at Twelve at Noon, and at 3 O'Clock
' Hawker would he pleased to know that Morwenstow CI iirch now has
a pea! of six hells, one of which has been dedicated to his memory, and inscribed
\vith iiis own words —
" Come to thy (Jod in time,
Come to tliv God at last."
358 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
on their missing him and going to search for him he was
found in a calm posture as of sleep quite dead. He had
not struggled nor been convulsed, but manifestly his life
ebbed away in peace. Will you blame me if I confess that
we both wept bitterly. I cannot write this now without
tears. When I remember how very few my human friends
have been — how treacherous and how unkind, and then
compare the long fidelity, the love and the kindness of this
poor dear dumb creature, I confess that I mourn as one
that mourns for a child. All these years never one angry
word from me nor one cold look from him — going for years
to Church carrying the key in his mouth, never happy
unless allowed to be with me in every walk, and now gone
for ever — no more pets — no one shall ever take Berg's
place. I feared when I saw him search out his Mistress on
Xmas Eve, and lay his head on her feet, and then place
his head on my knee in a strange manner of love. I
thought then, and I think I told you, that grief would befall
in '62. How my boding comes to pass."
"April 6, 1862.
..." You say you dread the moving. I say it would
slay me on the road. No one can even imagine the horror
it is to me to look forward to the journey from hence to
Stratton to attend the Confirmation. The streets, the
strange faces, the unusual crowd — the Salutations in the
market-place are to me, a shy nervous man, an actual trial
and a burthen to bear. When I had to attend at the
Archdeacon's Visitation at Launceston, 25 miles off, every
year, I could not sleep for long nights before, and the faint
and sickening sensation I felt at the aspect of the Town
was humiliating and depressing indeed.
..." I did not express myself clearly about the Visit of
the Archaeological Society. You assume that I mean to
VANITY FAIR 359
join them. Now nothing would induce me so to do. So
far from Society I want Solitude. A quiet room and a
Book with Mrs, Hawker free from pain and I can possess
my Soul in patience and be still."
"27 April, 1862.
..." I had seen the account given by Dickens before
of the Burial of the wrecked Sailors. But I don't like this
principle of a Collection among Strangers for her. It is
unfortunately too much nowadays the usage to take such
modes of payment, but I had rather God paid me & that
in his own ways."
"May nth, 1862.
[Re the Exhibition.]
" The C s went up to be in time for the opening of
Vanity Fair — and with very few exceptions the Clergy, the
Gentry, and even the Chief Farmers are going to indulge
that pride of the eye which is classed by St. James with the
lust of life. I cannot but utterly condemn the total
principles on which such things proceed — rivalry —
emulation for vainglory. But I hear from many quarters
that the effort is a failure. Tested by the sole English
criterion of success the money receipts fall short. And it
is already prophesied that the matter as a speculation will
not requite the outlay. The Building of 185 1 cost in
erection ;^i 25000. This will cost ^420000 and the
Tickets at the Door fall very short so far of 185 1. It is a
gigantic experiment of what Man with his Purse can do
without God's Grace, and how far mere Money will avail.
As I have before said, I deem all such Schemes a direct
endeavour to substitute the lower motives of human action
which existed before the Xtian Era for the higher and
purer impulses taught by the Gospel. Instead of attempt-
ing to restrain and to subdue the natural mind with its
36o LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
selfish and evil bias to overreach and to subvert others,
direct encouragement is given in such enterprises as this to
envy, hatred, ill-will. ' Love not the world,' is the axiom
of God. ' Make the World's Praise a principle of conduct,'
is the modern doctrine. But I will not weary you with my
doctrines drawn as they are from an old-fashioned Book,
only entering my protest against all share in the English
Madness of 1862. What worries me also is this, that I
hear continual complaints of poverty, of being unable to
afford a £^ note to support a Parish School, or to assist
destitute Parishioners to emigrate, and yet when such
opportunities of self-indulgence as these arrive, they can
spend ^20 in the journey up and down and in outlay there.
I am told that besides myself and Waller there will not be
a Clergyman in this Deanery who will be absent from this
Glare in London.
..." [No Government grant to school.] Throughout
Cornwall one in 75 Parishes, and one only, has received
assistance. So after 25 years of Struggle my heart is gone.
" How differently once I thought. I well remember
cherishing my correspondence with the Bishop of Exeter,
in the hope that it might lead to some canonry or Arch-
deaconry or other high Preferment. And all this went on
until about Ten Years ago. Then anxiety, domestic and
other kinds, and Griefs many subdued me, and my chief
Thought came. Where most peacefully could I die ?
Where be most tranquilly buried ? and so I gathered inwards
every thought — every hope, and became as I am now, rooted
to my own Graveside without an external plan or desire. I
yearn for a calm and blameless sepulchre : thereto I cling
and tend and go. And, like me, every thoughtful mind
when past the midway travel of our days is wont, I think,
to pause and dwell on the last resting-place and final
home."
A CASE OF BLACKMAIL 361
"June 15, 1862.
" On Friday I went to my first Visitation at Holsworthy
for Wellcombe Parish in that Deanery.
" Temple West was there and I could not but perceive
the traces of a shock on his features. I went across the
chancel before them all to shake hands with him, and I
saw his eyes moisten as he took my hand joyfully. What
a world we live in ! A wretched miscreant to extort money
threatened him with an awful accusation, from which he is
universally pronounced innocent as a little child. The
wretch has been compelled to depose upon oath that he
invented the whole, and he has attested this by his signa-
ture before a magistrate. But any one on Earth must be
liable to similar atrocity."
"June 29, 1862.
..." A letter arrived last week from a Son of our
Postman, who is a corporal in the Army of the North, in
America. He is stationed near Corinth, the Scene of the
J^attle, and he describes the carnage as most fearful. The
Soldiers live by taking possession of anything they can
obtain, Food and other valuable things. . . The Scenes of
violence, which he could not invent, and especially of their
conduct to Females, exceed in horror what we used to read
during the 1^'rench War or the occupation of Spain. The
pay of this man who writes is £^ a month, so that the
private with them is paid like an Officer with us. Their
war expenses are confessed!}' a million sterling a day, and
another million unacknowledged."
"July 6, 1862.
"Did you ever hear that for every 100 miles )-ou live
from London, )'ou must reckon \-ourself a Centur\- back
from \'our own date ? We therefore, who are 250 miles off,
are now in the }'ear 16 10 in all that relates to agriculture
362 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
and civilization. , . . The Six Weeks from Midsummer
Day to Lammas, the ist of August, usually decide the pro-
duce of the crop. The word Lammas is from Loafmas,
that is the Sacrament served with new Bread from the
Harvest of the Year."
"Septr. 14, 1862.
" So shattered am I in every fibre that I could not re-
solve to enter a Railway Carriage. How men can be found
ever to accept the offices of Dean or Bishop in the Church
I cannot imagine. Yet once I had courage for anything,
and when I recited my Prize Poem, ' Pompeii,' to 2000
people, among them the Magnates of the Land, I never
gave way. But since then what have I gone through !
..." Remember we never saw a Railway but once, and
only once travelled by it, and a sad muddle we made of it
then.
..." You will be glad to hear that my harvest is over,
and all safe under the thatch. But only through the self-
denial and noble conduct of my Church Warden Cann.
He actually postponed his own Reaping until my Corn was
saved. He came himself, a married Brother, and their two
men, they worked night and day most anxiously, and so it
was and is that my wheat and even my Barley were all in
thoro' safety first of all the Parish. I should have been
utterly annoyed if they had incurred loss, but no, theirs is
all in the mowhay, and they have been rewarded by a good
crop and no moisture on a saved sheaf But this is by no
means the case with the Parish in general. . . . The reason
why I so dwell on my saved Corn is that now I trust to be
able to pay my Farm Wages in Wheat as the custom is,
while for the last two years I have had to find money
instead. To small Farmers and Vicars the Mowhay is the
Farm Bank."
A FOREBODING 363
"Octr. 12, 1862.
..." The routine of our lonely Dwelling has not been
varied — Sickness is on the increase as always follows the
close of the Harvest. Two deaths at least impend — one an
Old Man — the Shock of corn coming in in his Season, the
other Decline (Phthisis) in middle life. And one by
one the green mounds that I see from my Window increase,
and the Cottage hearths have a vacant chair.
. . , " It is a prudent thing to do as I have learnt to do
— I ask questions, Who would weep for me if I were sent
for suddenly ? Who would find me wanting ? How would
N. or M. bear my loss ? And I love to think that one or
two would soften and grieve if I were not. How much
rather would the vacant chair of others move to gushing
tears. For there are not many left to whom my existence
is a thing of value. The Summer is over and gone — and
the Echoes of Winter are already loud among our rocks.
I know not why, but I have a shuddering dread of this
Winter and that of '63. See! I have written it."
This foreboding was sadly fulfilled, for his wife died in
the following February.
CHAPTER XVII
1856-1862
Letters to J. G. Godwin — Dean Cowie — Rev. W. D. Anderson
— Rev. W. West — Buddhism — " Fragments of a Broken
Mind " — The Evil Eye — A Case of Passive Resistance —
"The Poet of Cornwall" — The Demon's Autograph —
Prince Albert and Swedenborg — St. Thomas Aquinas —
The Spasm of the Ganglions — " Essays and Reviews " — A
Repugnant Nose — "The House that Jack Built."
The Letters in this chapter cover nearly the same period
as those to Mrs. Watson in the last chapter. In 1856
Hawker made the acquaintance of the late Mr. J. G,
Godwin, who afterwards edited his poems and prose.
Mr. Godwin was at that time in the publishing firm of
James Parker at Oxford, and happened during a holiday
to spend a day at Morwenstow, where he fell in with the
Vicar. Books and the University formed a bond of
sympathy, and a lifelong friendship began. Mr. Godwin
became " the wise adviser " in all publishing and literary
matters. He edited Hawker's 'Poetical Works' in 1879
and his prose in 1893. The following is Hawker's first
letter to him : but the main bulk of the correspondence
begins some years later :
"Novr. xxiv., 1856.
"Dear Mr. Godwin,
" You said when you were here that I might ask
you any question within your opportunity of knowledge
364
JOHN GILPIN 365
in Oxford and that you would kindly reply. I want a
copy of the Creed of Pope Pius the Fourth. Can you
put me in the way of getting it without any grave outlay ?
You see that like Gilpin
" ' Altho' I am on learning bent
I have a frugal mind.'
I have no Catalogue of such Books to which I can refer.
Anything of the sort which you can indicate to me by
name will oblige Yours,
" Dear Sir,
" Sincerely,
"R. S. Hawker."
To Rev. IV. D. Anderson.
" Octr. v., 1857.
"My Dear Sir,
" Whensoever your letters remain unanswered
you ma}' understand that something has gone wrong with
me. Mrs. Hawker has been in the last Five Weeks Four
times 111 . . . But these frequent returns I need hardly
say terrify me exceedingly, indeed my depression, although
I do my best to conceal it, is extreme. A load like lead is
never away from my ganglions, and reading, except aloud
to Mrs. H., and writing I have quite given up. The End
of a fierce life like mine is loss of the Brain. Besides all
other goads there is the dull daily drop on drop that
wears out the soul with low mean degrading money
fears. Pray write when you can, and when Mrs. H.
is able to sit at table in comfort I will write to }-ou
to come. But I am the only Nurse within twenty
miles."
366 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
To Rev. W. West.
" Morwenstow. Novr. vi., 1857.
"My Dear Mr. West,
" I will not apologise for my slowness to respond
to your ever welcome letters, because to you I have made
known the Fact that Bad Bodily Health and a Deep
Depression of Mind are the two Warders that keep the
Door of my Earthly Existence. I am now seated at my
Blotting Paper just able and no more to move the pen : an
abscess in my throat broke the night before last : a malady
to which I am prone : and freed me from some peril and
agonizing pain. Now what shall I first record ? Your
lack of a curacy is one that I should have very much
rejoiced to find attainable on the Tamar Side, but I know
none vacant or if any were fitted for you to hold either in
emolument or position. A Methodist Bawler is far better
adapted to the tastes and the exigencies of the West of
England than St. James or St. John. We are fast approach-
ing the Time of another Surrender of our Chancels and
Pulpits to yelling Laymen, only the Revolution will be this
time produced by some Act of Pari : Chap. 2 & — 4, instead
of any Convulsion from without. How glad you must be
that you did not fulfil your Indian purpose. If Men did
but read the Oracles by the Light of the Lamp which hath
Seven Branches ! instead of which they use one taken from
some Pagan Sepulchre. My own mode is to go into my
own dim Chancel divided from the Nave by a Screen, there
kneel, walk, or sit and meditate, close the eye and send out
a Spiracle of Research from every pore. Gradually in such
an atmosphere every fine fibre of the Soul brightens like
the gossamer — St. Mary's Silk — upon the grass, and
becomes a Ray — hence knowledge and reply. I believe :
TTto-Tevw : I acknowledge and I trust in the Sympathy of
the Saints, the ethereal Wires that reach from the Habitant
CHANCEL MEDITATIONS 367
of Flesh to those who are (just now) nothing but Soul.
Along these filaments questions flash and answers glide.
Thoughts which are oracles come and go. How otherwise
should I know the Dream and the Interpretation thereof?
But do you know ? Try ! Well then. These Hindus —
Whence and Who ? Descendants of the Tribes led captive
Eastward by the Assyrian : Heirs of the indelible Tribe
or Caste, men who avoid both Swine's Flesh and Bull's.
Cruel as the Levite of Mount Ephraim. Demon-dwelt.
Cannot they be made Xtian ? Did any of the Ten Tribes
return to their own Land ? No — None. Certain numbers
of the Two Tribes did and thereby they symbolized that
fulness of Israel that came into the Church in the Apostolic
Times. But of the Ten — None. Is not this however
repugnant to the Mercy of God ? No, The Existence of an
Attribute does not imply its Exercise. Here is a fatal
source of our Mistake. We know from Native Reason and
the Oracles that in God the Trinity there are certain
attributes such as e.g.. Omnipotence and omniscience.
And then we proceed to infer that these because they exist
must be exercised. Whereas the very name and nature of
the First of these (Omnipotence) implies Power to employ
or to suspend any of the others at any time. God knows
all that I shall ever do. God can interfere with me and
direct all, etc. But he suspends his Power in order to leave
me Free. Just so with the Attribute of limitless Mercy.
God will only exercise this Attribute so far as shall consist
with His Wisdom and His Will. Said the Mussulman, In
the War of Heaven the Watchword that the Archangel may
alwa)-s give of his own accord is ' Allah Akbar,' God is
Great. But the Word ' Allah Kerim,' God is Merciful,
must not be used till it is given out by God himself Thus
then I infer that the Conversion of the Hindu is a thing
reserved. How do you know that it is not postponed to
368 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
another Scene of continuous Existence? I think I have
mentioned to you the Buddhist Formulary. The Total
Creed of the largest Share of Mankind this very day, only
Six Syllables and Four Words. All through Hindustan,
Thibet, Tartary, China, carved on Altars, woven into
Tapestry, painted over Tombs, chanted by myriads, taught
to children and Men, sounded in Prayer, proclaimed by
Lama and Priest as an embodiment of all human Know-
ledge and Divine Revelation. Here it is in my Autograph
Om = Mani = Padmi = om.
pronounced cum. manni Padmi = cum. I enclose a copy
in Sanscrit, one of Five sent from India last year by a
Friend. But what does it mean — What teach — What
reveal ? It is no more — no less than the Gasp of many
Lands — the agony of Nations in their Prayer — an unful-
filled entreaty — as it were the Echo of a Hope denied. O !
in the sense of Utinam ! ' O for ' — or, ' O that ' I could win
— or, O that I had not lost. O ! for the Jewel of the
Lotus. . . [the letter is here mutilated owing to the
signature having been cut off] ^ . . . a vast multitude in
this utterance of pleading anguish is a sound so woebegone
that few can hear it without tears, altho' they know not the
^ The substance of the sentence here lost may be gathered from the follow-
ing note copied from a ms. of Hawker's sent by him to Sir Thomas Acland : —
" Oum : mani : padmi : oum :
Now these words literally signify, and they exactly mean
" O, for the precious thing of the Lily.
What is this Echo, but the vast unconscious sigh, wherein the Hearts of many
People pant for the fulfilment of the mystic Symbol, the Mother and the
Child? Thus all over the Earth these Flowers of the Field, created it may be
for this principal intent, prophesy with unchangeable voice.
■' There is the Rose ruddy as Blood and wreathed with its Thorns, the
emblem of Him who was pierced for many Men. And the cup-shaped
Lily, — from the Lotus, in the carven Hand of Brahma, to the Chalice, or the
Fleur de Lis on an English Boss, — is still the everlasting Type of Her
who out of Egypt carried her Son."
DEAN COWIE 369
meaning of the Voice. Such a Wail might have come up
the Valley of Olives from the banished City if she had
understood the tone of that ' Farewell, Jerusalem !
Jerusalem ! ' or Such may be the lament of the exiles on the
Left Hand when they hear their Signal ' Depart ' — or such
the Chant of those Angels after the Judgment who may
recall the Imagery of Egypt and old Nile and repent but
cannot be forgiven. Well Well — Good Night. God bless
you both."
To Dean Cowie}
"Feby. xxv., 1858.
" Mv Dear Cowie,
" So I call you while I can. Before long it will be
' My Lord Bishop ! ' and would to God it might chance ' of
Exeter.' . . .
" No one among your Friends can rejoice more faithfully
than we do, in this lonely house, in your ascent. Often I
apply to you old Jacob's thought when he kindled with the
memory of his deeds of arms and said as you may say to
your son : — ' Behold I have given thee one portion above
thy Brethren which I won from the Amorite with my sword
and with my bow.' "
To Rev. W. West.
"March i., 1858.
"Mv Dear Sir,
" Wlien you called me in your letter * a Man of
Sorrows ' you employed a phrase that is literally historic
of my whole life. They say that among the angels who
rebelled there was one who turned back from the onset of
Sin and was forgiven. But you may always distinguish
iiim among the myriads of Heaven by the sadness of his
eye — What he is I have been amid the most prosperous of
' See p;ige 342,
2 A
370 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
my days. And now as the Shadows lengthen my exist-
ence is wellnigh more than I can bear — KvpLe ! eXerjo-ov !
" Strange as it may seem I have not written one voluntary
letter on a literary theme except to yourself for fully three
years. A whole mass of correspondence upbraids me from
my escritoire in vain re^vT^Kora Aoyta. But you, dear
Mr. West, must now begin to love life for others' sake.
You have given hostages as Bacon said. A Face will wear
your Features and a voice utter your name in the presence
of unborn generations. You have been rescued from the
Wail, ' No heir of mine succeeding.' And another Life
has blended itself with the Stream of your days as long as
both shall live. These links are the green withes that
fasten the Strong Man to the Things that are seen. And
it is well that it should be so or it would not have been.
And now let me entreat you if you can do so without much
effort write to me again. And I will rouse myself and
reply since you seem to wish it. I do not now see A^ 6-^
Qs. so that I cannot tell how far you still aid that fast
failure. My own waiting is of this kind. A sewn book, i.e.,
twelve of these sheets sewn together sermon shape without
covers always is laid upon my table. When a thought
occurs or phrase worthy of ink I jot it down and when one
MS. Book is full another is sewn and in this way many
scores of such memda. books are now gathered into my
drawers. Perhaps one day they may be read and printed
as ' the Fragments of a broken mind.' "
To Dean Coivie.
IMarch iv, 1858.
" My Dear Cowie,
" Said Dryden, —
" ' An awful Silence now invades the ear,
And in that Silence we a Tempest fear ! '
BISHOP WORDSWORTH 371
For which saying of his he got flayed by the Critics. Still
I thank him because his words express my own Sensations
when I unlocked my bag to-night and yelled to Mrs. H.
* No letter from the Bishop elect.' Seriously I want a word
— a line — Will the Derby dilly ^ book you for one of the
insides .-' If not let me know and I have a Tchutgur ^ and he
knows my Ring. Did I ever tell you of my letter to Mrs,
Guelph about her eldest boy .'' 3 You may trace her answer
in the inclosed Print. [See p. 264.] Haste."
"March vij., 1858.
" Mv Dear Cowie,
" I have taken heart to-night and written to ' the
Lord,''^ as R. calls him, myself. R's threat to the Kilkhampton
people is ' I shall tell the Lord.' They thought at first he
meant the Lord of Hosts. When do you preach at the
Abbey .'' And why not before .'' Unless C. Wordsworth ^ is
vastly altered since I met him, and yourself likewise, you
ought to have led the way for him."
To Rev. W. D. Anderson.
"May 22, 1859.
" My Dear Sir,
" Police called in at Wellcombe, Writing on the
Porchwall of Church threatening Damnation (gratis) to all
Churchgoers. Letters to the same purport : something
makes them wince. A woman's writing. In our House and
P'arm, Loss and Misery. Old Mrs. B whom I took
' Probably a local carrier's cart.
= A demon or familiar spirit.
3 i.e., his application to Queen Victoria for permission for Mr. J. T. Bligiit
to dedicate his book 'Ancient Crosses,' etc., to the Prince of Wales.
■* i.e., Lord John Thynne.
•'' Bishop Wordsworth. See epitaph on his wife in ' Cornish Ballads.'
372 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
had evil eye = jettatore TrovT/pbs o^^aA./i,os — nine lambs died,
chiefly neglect. 3 ewes Rams fell over the Cliff — neck
broken. Heifer miscarried — Calf 6 mo's old — Since Lady
Day Parson's luck turned."
To Rev. W. D. Anderson.
(Undated Fragments.)
" It is at last made known that all the affairs of the
Nation have passed into the sole hands of one Firm, Messrs.
Brag & Sham. Hissing and clapping are legal in
Churches, as on any other Stage, and so that you believe
certain Persons are sure to be damned, it does not matter
a penny whether you believe one atom of the Gospel or
not. And this is the 19th Century! Your Englishman is
discovered to be a dexterous Blacksmith, and nothing more,
and the sole evidences of Xtianity are the votes of the
largest number of grimy miscreants. The doctrine of the
Trinity must be extinguished, because it does not give
satisfaction to the greatest number of the people. We had
a visit from the Clydes last week, after an absence of many
months. The Parish of Bradworthy does not appear to be
the terrestrial Paradise. Enoch and Elijah don't farm
there. Sir F. L. is disappointed because the Ratepayers
won't supply funds for lighting and warming the Church,
and sustaining the Staff of the Organ. Did you hear of
the text at the Inauguration .'' The Singers go before, the
Minstrels follow after, in the midst are the Squire and his
Organ ! "
To Dean Cowie.
"June XV., 1859.
" My Dear Cowie,
" To a Man of One Book as I am and to a hermit
afar off from Libraries it is an inestimable advantage to
JUNKET AND CREAM 373
possess a power of resort to those * Wells of Learning
undefiled,' Senior Wranglers and Double Firsts. ' Dives
Pauperem me petit.'' To them therefore I appeal in my
vacuity of knowledge. ' Thither the other Stars repairing
In their golden Urns draw light.' In one of my favourite
Volumes, Brewster's Book, I discover and transcribe a
Gordian passage — here it is inclosed — and as the Cornish
Charm for Cramp says
" ' The Devil is tying a knot in my leg,
S. Peter, S. Peter, unloose it, I beg.'
So say I to you. I admonish you to acquaint me by return
of Post with the exact and clear definition of the phrase ' the
Problem of three Bodies ' : and again of the name ' the
luminiferous ether.' Tell me as you would tell one of
your pupils in plain simple small words. So shall you be
requited with junket and cream when next you toil hither-
ward, as I had the honour to requite an Earl a Viscount
and a Baronet three days ago. By the way the Earl
(Harrowby) is a Relation of yours, being a Double First of
Oxford. He ratified my rendering of the dv/jpiOfiov ykXaa-fxa
by quoting ' Cachinnus ' as the tantamount word used by
Catullus of the Sea.
[Extract enclosed.]
" From ' More Worlds than One,' by Sir D. Brewster, page 73 : —
" ' On a Planet more magnificent than ours may there not be a
type of reason of which the Intellect of Newton is the lowest
degree ? May there not be telescopes more penetrating and
microscopes more powerful than ours ? processes of induction
more subtle of analysis, more searching and of combination more
profound ? May not t/ie probk7n of three Bodies be solved there
— the e/ii^^nia of the luminiferous ether unriddled — and the trans-
cendentalisms of mind emi)almed in the definitions and axioms
and theorems of Geometry ? ' "
374 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
" Novr. xxix., 1859.
" My Dear Cowie,
" In all my perplexities and especially when I get
entangled in the Cone of Space I refer to you for solution.
I have not even Euclid in the House nor a single Book
which contains the ruts of the Planets. I want on a Sheet
of Paper or on a Page to examine an outline of the usual
Conic Sections. I confide in your sending me cut out of
print or drawn by your own pen — the Ellipse — the Parabola
— and the Hyperbola — one Page with all the Conic Sections
named on it will suffice."
" Deer, vij., 1859.
" My Dear Cowie,
" My hearty thanks to you for your long-sought
Books and your cheerful compliance with my troublesome
request."
" Now I am able to trace the ruts of the Planets as they
career amid the Cone of Space. You asked me why I so
call it. Because Space is ' mensura loci ' a measured part of
God's presence ' axes atque orbitas gerens,' holding within it
centres and curves for the roll and return of the Starry
Worlds. Space is the only Part of God's Presence that our
minds can embrace ; the rest is <?^ws a/^arov.
" Time is mensura inotus prius et posterius habens. I say
that Space is in a cone because all the orbits are Sections of
that Figure and every material existence such as Space must
have Figure and Form. But all this you know better than
I. .•. Good-night."
To Rev, W. D. Anderson.
"8 June[? i860].
" To mark my indignation at the profligate malversation
of the Poor Rate and the unprincipled amounts assessed
A TOAST 375
(always twice the Sum required or applied to the Poor) I
refused to pay my rates at any other time than at the two
Audits — and then only retrospectively. After applying to
two Magistrates in vain A. got G. of Jacobstow to sign a
Summons on me on the 6th of June, Visitation Day, to be
heard next day, yesterday, I did not appear in person but R.
did for me. Full bench at Stratton — C. K. of Holsworthy was
retained against me. Case gone into and fully heard and
smashed. They were told they might distrain on another,
but had no power to distrain me. So they were dismissed,
looking more like baffled fiends than ever. Far, far greater
sneaks than Judas, because he had the Grace to hang him-
self, while these miscreants are mean enough to give others
that trouble. Now other Clergymen say they see the in-
justice of prepaying Rate on Tithe not received, and they
shall refuse, having this man Moses to stand before them in
the gap. How like the Race. , . .
" At the ArchD.'s visitation on Wednesday at Stratton 1
was with him all day. He walked to the Church and from
with me, and in the hour's interval before Dinner John
drove the ArchD. and myself to Bude to see it. To my
utter surprise after Dinner, he (the ArchD.) proposed my
health as the ' Poet of Cornwall,' and it was cheered loudl)',
how sinccrel)' I know not, by the Clergy."
To J. G. Godwin, Esq.
" June xvij., i860.
..." My motive, partly selfish, was to ascertain if }-ou
could borrow for me a copy of Mr. Morris's Translations
from S. I'^phrem Syrus. You will see by the inclosed that
I naturally cherish Writers like S. l<>phrcm. I suppose
' Nature,' a Poem also by Morris, is inaccessible. We used
to call him ' Union Jack ' when he was an Oxford Man.
376 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
Poor dear fellow — I hold now a Vol. of Gretser which he
lent me lo years agone."
To J. G. Godwin, Esq.
"June xix., i860.
" Have you ever heard that there is at All Souls in the
Library a Signature, or at least the Autograph, of the
Enemy of Man ? It is annexed to or traced on one of the
MSS. Perhaps Mr. Kirkland may have heard this among
the many Legends of the University, which he cannot fail
to have encountered in his half Century. I have not one
Friend left now in Oxford, except the Vice Chancellor, and
he is too awful a Person now to be written to on such a
theme."
To Dean Cowie.
"May xxj., 1861.
" My Dear Cowie,
..." Thanks to you for your address — unex-
ceptionable— cast upon the Waters to be found again after
many days with a mitre in its leaves. I am thoroughly sick
of the Essays & Reviews. After S. Oxon with his Snailjuice
and Sugar remarks had made the thing more nauseous than
before, he appears in the character of a Lutheran Reformer
of a Canon and displays in his Convocation Speeches an
amount of ignorance of Sacramental x-\ntiquity disgusting in
a Chorister. Whereas the primal Church, graphic in the
lowliest of her usages, evermore preserved the contrast
between the Two Births which was defined by Our Lord to
Nicodemus by night, and because the Natural Parents
inflicted on us the First and Evil Existence they were there-
fore repelled from the Sacrament of Spiritual Life and
forbidden to perplex with their very presence the delivery
of our Second Birth by Water and God. It was my State-
"BOUNDLESS IDIOTCY" 377
ment before many Witnesses that no repeal of any Canon
could obliterate from Baptism this great principle of the
guilt of Parental Access to the Font. Accordingly Sir. G.
Lewis unfolds to the Commons their tardy discovery that if
the Canons were annulled there are still impediments among
the ancient Laws of the Church. Then again Sir. M. Peto
proposes a Statute whereby a single clause shall enable a
Dissenter of any hue to perform a Burial Rite in a Church-
yard, unaware, he and 155 other Legislators in their
boundless idiotcy, of the fact that if the Act had passed
there remained a Mass of Common Law, Canon, Rubric
and Principle, which would forbid a Zrty-person from
performance of any effort at ministerial office in a con-
secrated piece of ground. So much for Buckingham.
" The Vera Effigies has been as you are aware with me an
earnest theme of research. I have gathered some jottings
of value hereon. But as I often find I am overtaken by the
Age. In the Jany. No. of the Art Journal and in each
succeeding No. to May you will find a Series of illustrated
Papers, well done as far as they go, on this very Subject.
The Two that I cut out to inclose will supply suggestive
notion. But in London you can easily look at the Work.
No. 2 is from the Sacristy of St. Peter's (Vatican) and is
engraved in wood from a worn and discoloured cloth sent to
King Agbar in y 2nd Age. No. i is from a similar cloth
(unless I blunder writing away from the Book). But at all
events you must read the Papers and obtain access to the
writer — Thos. Heaphy Esq. 5, Bulstrode St., Manchester Sq.
When you have caught him hold him fast till I come."
To J. G. God 10 in, Esq.
" June xxix., iS6i.
" Altho' severed from the World and all P>iends and ac-
quaintance except my Rooks and Daws : ' uhi avcs ibi
3/8 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
angeli :' yet have I in each great city I trust one literary
friend. My sole correspondent in Oxford is yourself: my
Oxonian exigencies now are these — i. A copy of the Prize
Poem Newdigate of 1861, ' The Vikings,' I think — if the in-
closed i/- in stamps be inadequate you will tell me. ij. To
ask the name of a very old translator of Herodotus in
quaint Shakspearian English. I remember it but I cannot
identify, iij. The same of Pliny's Natural History — was it
Philemon Holland ? iv. Is there a portable edition of
Drayton's Polyolbion and his Barons' Wars — And if these
exist, can they be bought, borrowed, or stolen for a brief
while ? You who understand exactly my position, abode,
and Lares, can judge what I mean. When I get a book I
devour — then chew the cud — and convey the pith and
marrow into my MS. Daybook, where repose all the good
bits of the Hearn you lent me. Plow the Oxford of the
Essays must contrast with the Oxford of 1830 odd."
To Dean Cowie.
"July 10, 1 86 1.
" My Dear Co^YIE,
"Thanks many, but how about your scientific
Astronomy of the 19th Century when nev^' Comets are for
the first time announced in a Country Vicarage by the maid
going to the well for water } W^e have had two or three
brilliant interviews with this Stranger in Jerusalem since
Sunday Night. My notion is that this is the Comet of
1560^ with a 300 year cycle and which had something to
do with the Soul of Harry the Eighth. We were at the
Castle yesterday, and Alaskell and m}-self actually fought the
Battle of Galileo and Aristotle at Pisa on the Canal Bridge,
M. asserting and offering to back himself to any amount that
a large stone would reach the water below in half the time
' 1556.
ROMAN CATHOLIC OVERTURES 379
that a small one would splash. Of course I took Galileo's
part, and my little pebble very nearly beat his big one twice.
But, as I told Maskell, how Oxford must have neglected
him. Now I want to ask you a favour, and I never so resort
to you in vain. My School, never fully finished, is in want
of a new floor and apparatus, i.e. desks and forms. I put
down at the bidding of your Council a lime-ash floor and the
boys have kicked it into holes. I had money once, but it is
all gone, invested in Morwenstow for the benefit of the
unborn. Tell me how I am to find an Uncle in London to
advance in L. S. D. } But I have an avenue of better
days. The Landlords have discovered on reaching the
scene how shockingly I have been deserted and how
little impulse of succour can move the intestinal mind of
a Cornish farmer. . . ."
About this time Hawker sent a copy of his poem ' The
Comet ' to the Roman Catholic Bishop of Southwark, Dr.
Grant, who acknowledged it in the letter that follows.
While this letter certainly expresses a desire to convert
Hawker, there is nothing to show that he responded to the
overture [See p. 442] : —
" St. George's. July 29, 1S61.
" Mv Dear Sir,
" I received }'our kind remembrance & your
striking thoughts about the ' Comet ' this morning, and I lose
no time in thanking you for your goodness.
" I am all the more pleased to get this letter as I feared
from \-our silence that I had gone too far in asking )'ou to
let me say how anxious I was to see }'ou a member of the
IIol}' Church.
" I thank n'ou therefore very sincere!}', & I humbl\' cherish
the hope that \-ou who look much on the stars will recollect
the sa)-ing of a peasant who hearing Mrs. Shelley exclaim
38o LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
as she looked at the stars & said ' Quanta e bello,' repHed,
' Ah, if the reverse of the medal is so beautiful, fancy the
front thereof. Se il rovescio e tanto bello, quanto ne sard
piii il dritto ! ' And how shall we meet in Heaven unless
we enter as children of the Holy Church and of Her whom
you love to invoke as Stella matutina ?
" Yours very sincerely,
t" Thomas Grant."
To .
"October xv., 1861.
" I have been about to write to you for some time
but I have not had the heart. You who only see me when
I am urgent to gratify my guests little know the low base
mean teeth that gnaw at the roots of my weary existence.
You remember a kindly effort you made to get X.to appoint
a Church Tenant for Farm. He instead allowed one
Y., the paralysed Wesleyan, to select one Z., Mrs. Y.'s
relation, a bitter, insolent, secular Dissenter. Well, at Bude
this month there was at the Falcon a Masterless Steed — a
Horse without an owner. Search made, no Rider found.
Fears of Suicide or accidental Drowning in the Canal ;
the Police sent for. At last after vigilant travel there was
discovered in a Hogstye in Burton's Marsh a Farmer asleep,
but not alone. He was girded by the Arms of a lewd
lady from Bodmin, a common girl, and the man was Z. the
chosen Tenant of Messrs Y and X. . . T. returns this week
to find his Flock gorged with cold Spurgeon without mustard.
L., Curate of St. James, confessed that He and His went
to the Fellow's place to hear him, and, as all the people
infer, to copy him. One thing is clear, W^esleyans who
resisted going to T.'s Services thronged to sit under K. and
L. Say they, ' We like the Master and we like his Man
THE DEVIL'S AUTOGRAPH 381
Jack also.' Jack's gestures and jabber were described to
me as clumsily spasmodic. But now comes my grief, I
have lost and cannot find the exact address to the Authorities
in Office in Betton's Charity. Will you in compassion to
the Fragments of a broken mind send me the Address."
To J. G. Godwin, Esq.
"186 1. Octr. xxij.
" Reeds shaken with the Wind ? Which cluster ? There
were two small books No. I. and No. H. one published by
Mozley of Derby and the other by Burns. Both exempli-
fied my destiny. They were printed, sold immediately to
nearly the last copy — every shilling was intercepted by
the Patrons of Literature. Have you succeeded in your
Search for the Demoniac Autograph? If you do, pray
secure a tracing of it. I have heard or read somewhere that
such Signatures are scratched as it were with the claw of
a cock on the Sand. There is a link between the Bird that
chants the dawn and the Fiend that I want to verify.
The Bird with the girded loins in Job — The Demon-Bird
that exulted at Simon's Denial — the Bird which devoured
the Shallow Seed in the parable expressly said to pourtray
the Fiend — Then cometh the Devil — The axiom ' Ubi Aves
ibi angeli ' — this last word in the sense of Spirits good and
evil — All this however will not reveal the writing which
exists I am persuaded in Oxford, howsoever reluctant the
members of a College may be to avow their Founder's
Kin. . ."
To the same.
"Octr. 30, 1861.
" North's Plutarch ? to be had ? and price }
..." I gi\-e you a great deal of trouble but I have no
other Resident Friend for literary topics in the University
382 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
What a place Oxford has become for unsettling every
dogma ! Old Test : gone — N. T, going — The Apocrypha ?
London worse. There the Clergy I am told feed with cold
Spurgeon and without mustard ! ! "
To Dean Cowie.
" November 1861.
" My Dear Cowie,
" A Girl at F, but not expected to live. Thus you
see the power granted to me. Why, I know not, but such
* Potentia non Potestas ' do I possess that I have said
again and again to Mrs. Hawker ' the daughter of the
Stranger shall mar the inheritance.' ' There must be no
male child.' Therefore experto crede Roberto. My ^ vis
insita ' may, it is true, languish, but so long as I hold my
own you may confide in me. We were at the Castle on
Friday and we heard all the local news. Among the rest
that the Officers of State in * Poughill, the Field of the
Gull ' had received notice to hold themselves ready to
assist at the Accouchement, and that Mrs. D. the Dame of
the Chrysome was fully awake. Still I have visceral
augury. No Heir of Hers succeeding. K. of Merton and
T. Diocesan Inspectors have been visiting this District —
every School I believe but mine. Still the Bust of Brutus
is not in the Triumph. . , .
..." About America ? The name Anglo-Saxon will
not so well cohere with their nature as FcEces Romuli.
Not one great mind in any department. Longfellow .''
No, a successful chanter of verses, a man of rhythm. But
no Orator, Statesman, General or even Mechanician, No
Officer able to get 5000 Soldiers into a Battle or out of it
save by a run. But no room. Our kindest regards to
you all from us two."
PRINCE ALBERT'S CREED 383
To J. G. Godwin, Esq.
" Deer, xvj., 1861.
..." I restore to you also the vol : of Bp. Andrewes.
Either he or I is utterly changed since last I read his
Sermons. . . Have you access to any Foreign Book-
seller's Catalogue (I mean of one residing abroad). Father
Oswald of Downside a Benedictine who has lately visited
me tells me that there are many libraries in Italy even now
dispersing and Books accessible at low rates. They (the
Benedictines) are still the literary Orders as their Fore-
fathers were. Amalfi is a good place for inquiries.
At any time an aged Oxon Paper or such like source
of tidings of How grows The Great Denial will be wel-
come to
" Yrs. faithfully,
" R. S. Hawker."
To the same.
" And now for your usual catechism. Do }'ou know in
what Form the Cardinal [Wiseman] published ' Lectures on
Language ' some years ago ? And now will you ascertain,
for it must be matter of colloquial notoriety in Oxford,
Who visited ministerially the Prince [Albert] in his last
illness ? Who delivered the Eucharist to him ? Was the
Service for the Sick of our Bk. Cn. Pr. used in his
Presence ? Did he die in the Anglican or the Lutheran
Communion ? He is said to have recited one of
Toplady's Hymns. Did he rehearse any other Confes-
sion of Faith ? Of course I would make no offensive
inquiry, but so much is said of the Ro)'al Example
of His Princely Life that it would be well to
know."
384 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
To J. G. Godwin, Esq.
" Feby. xviij., 1862.
l^Re contemplated book.]
"If Maskell's reference to Chambers be another failure
I must accept it as an omen of defeat and contend no more
against the palpable doom. What else can I understand ?
Every objection is answered on the Spot. If the plea is
no taste in the public for verse — answer ' Golden Treasury '
10,000 a month. If they resist Puseyism then have they a
score of such as The ' Bottreau Bells,' &c. But the whole is
utter and entire falsehood. An Enemy hath done this. I
deem it all mere and unmitigated Demonism. I never
feared the Demons and they know it. Therefore they never
spare me. And inasmuch as from despite of Baptism and
choked channels of Grace nine out of every ten men are
inhabited, the Fiends have vantage ground whence to
baffle me : And they do. It is the old old Story. Here-
after my verses will be sought after sold illustrated read
aye and extolled to the very echo. The Ballads will
be called by every noble name — and then will come the
ower-true tale ' In his life-time they could find no printer
brave enough to shed his ink in their behalf and so they
died.'
..." I have for long been a Man of one Book and that
the wonderful Summa of Aquinas. I have read it through
several times. I search the indexes every week. How I
wish I could get a copy of Maskell's Edition — my own is
the 30s. Folio of Paris full of blunders and in puny flea-
bitten type painful to eye and mind. Can you ascertain
from some Book Catalogue the value of a mutilated copy
of Hals ? I mean of course his Parochial History of
Cornwall. All copies of his Work are mutilated. His
account of the old Cornish Families was found so scandal-
ous that it was perilous to print and publish, hence all
A SEEDPLOT OF SCHISM 385
copies have been more or less destroyed. . . The stamps
were inclosed to alleviate the abominable tax I inflict on
you in the shape of Postage. If you won't so receive them
I must diminish the number of my letters and very sorry
should I be to forfeit the advantage of yours."
To J. G. Godwin, Esq.
" March xxx., 1862.
..." I am very grateful for the access you disclose to
the Ed : Gent : Mag : I will draw up a Sketch of this
Foundation, and perhaps you had better read it on its
way.
" I have received from Mrs. Acland two small photo-
graphs of the Museum [at Oxford], one the long outside
Front, which looks, unrelieved as it is by Porch or Projec-
tion, like a Row of Buildings, rather than one Vast Structure :
and the other is a Side of the Quadrangle, as I suppose
glazed : these graven bits are neat and accurate, but, sooth
to say, one cannot but regard such Roofs in Oxford as
cenotaphs of the Human Mind. Because not one original
conception — no added Store of Thought — not even a
graphic or graceful phrase, ever seems to arise from the
dead on Oxford ground. They deny, and nothing is easier
than that, all the former things, and for these they sub-
stitute a guess, a hope, an enthymeme, of that which may be
and is not. When I was an Undergrad. the Head of a
House recommended to my Soul a Book — Hey's Lectures
on the Articles.^ It was a Granary of ' Essays and Re-
views.' I read, and I doubted the total Revelation. My
Notes contain at this day each an embryon of a modern in-
fidelity. The Book was a Seedplot of Schism and Disbe-
lief A Friend referred me to the Summa of St. Thos.
Aquinas. I read and I was rescued. I found therein
■ Compare page 122.
2 13
386 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
every question in Theology that can enter into the imagina-
tion of a Man discussed pro and con with the inference laid
down and the authorities. Since then I have made it my
solitary Book. Not one Human Thought about another
World, not a single question that the Mind of Man could
ask, but there it is stated, discussed, and solved. When a
theme of controversy brattles in the air, while hostile
language throngs the voice and mind, I unclose my ancient
page, and there I read the doubt of Ages solved. A few
still small words and there is no more to be said — e.g.,
When the Stony doubt hardened as to the conflict between
geologic and Mosaic Time I sought the Oracle. Said He
in the Words of St. Augustine, The Days of Moses cannot
be Solar days, because until the 4th the Sun was not
created. What then were they ? Seven Scenic Sections
of Revelation to the Angels for delivery to Man. This with
his clear and stern definition of Time closes every question,
settles every doubt — Time, the measure of movement hav-
ing a former and a later point.
" But I have gossipped out my paper, and I must have
done. . . .
" Yrs. very faithfully,
" R. S. Hawker."
To J. G. Godwin, Esq.
"April v., 1862.
" I am glad that Hey's insidious infidelities are discarded
from modern research. Nevertheless the Book of ' Essays
and Reviews ' is but a meagre reissue of the Norrisian
Professor's doubts and denials. Your statement as to the
lax reading of Young Oxford is no surprise to me. The
England of the xixth Century is fths Wesleyan in
Theology. One and only one tenet identifies this Schism.
Every Methodist Preacher or Hearer must attest by Vow
THE SPASM OF THE GANGLIONS 387
and Signature his assent to a Paragraph in Wesley's xith
Sermon on the Witness of the Spirit, a Form of Words
wherein is taught that a sensible testimony, a testimony
through the sense of corporal feeling, perceived about the
region of the diaphragm, is the Sole Evidence of our
Pardon — our Second Birth — our reception into the family of
God. This Spasm of the ganglions as I have named it is
the single solitary aim hope endeavour of the whole
Wesleyan Life. Once perceived or fancied all other
Doctrine is unnecessary all other Discipline vain. No need
of Creeds, Forms, Sacraments, Books, or other channels of
access to Holiness or God — No room for farther Hope or
Fear of judgment day. To myself it is often said when I
have charged or detected Sin ' O Sir I had a very clear
Witness ' at such a date in such a place. ' My place
in Heaven is sure,' and this Witness, which is ascribed to
the Third Person of the Trinity alone, has led to the
practical Abjuration of the Attributes of the First and
Second Persons the Incarnation and its Fruits. Now this
tenet in some form or other is the lonely dogma of
Evangelical or rather of Ecclesiastical England. Go
whither you will — to the condemned cell — the College or
the Church, and the sole question to the Sinner is ' How
^o yow feel? What do you think? What is your own
judgment on your own case ? ' There is not one other
doctrine in all the land. The Three Creeds ? ' Well, they
07ight to be believed, but if not we can't help it.' There is
no punishment or legal loss in that disbelief Holy
Scripture ? ' Well, well — a good Book : it contains some-
where or other all things necessary to Salvation, but no body
knows where nor is a man to be blamed or punished if he
feels in doubt about any part of the Doctrine,' and in these
two last answers you have the History of the English
Church in a Nutshell. When the Leaders of the Great
388 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
Revolt drew up their Series or List of Denials they omitted
to assert or enforce one Dogma, 10,000 Negations do not
establish one Statement. You may deny every known
Creed and yet not thereby obtain one of your own. Hence
comes Chaos.
" Shipley's Tract is good. Thank you for that and
all the light you shed in this dark place from distant
sources. I want the Dublin Review. How can I get
the No. mentioned by McLaren on the within paper ?
The Lectures he refers to are now in course of delivery and
are nervous and clear : only a Catholic can deal with such
men as wrote Essays and Reviews. To any Denomination
of Protestantism they reply ' You deny — I deny — My
denial is as valid as yours.' The total Denier is but a
boundless Protestant after all. A word about the Prince. . .
I have it from a sure hand that he died as he had lately
lived, a Swedenborgian. Hence his repulsion of all
Ecclesiastics. The Easter Communion which he with all
his Family approached was literally a mere matter of Form
a sort of Test and Corporation necessity. Another loftier
name is said to share his bias — hence that calmness which
proceeds from the tenet that Death is a mere withdrawal of
the Body, The Soul is at Windsor still. Do you know the
' Arcana Celestia ' of Swedenborg ? If you have it perhaps
you would lend it to me, or any other embodied Statement
of his heresies. What line of reading do you yourself
incline to ? I mean in Theology. If I knew it is just
possible I might be able to save you trouble, having
for so many years wasted irrevocable time in resolution of
doubt. This is only asked on your account not for vain
curiosity.
"A weary letter to you I fear. Good Night.
" Yours faithfully,
" R. S. Hawker."
NOTES AND QUERIES 389
To J. G. Godwin, Esq.
"1862. April xix.
" My Dear Sir,
" Always welcome sincere and true are your
letters to me. . . I have not received a single copy of
Notes & Queries since Thorns took higher office in the
Library at the House of Lords — a lapse which identified
him irrevocably with that publication. I do not however
regret the failure of that Paper from my letter-Bag, for
reasons. When it was started, a measure ' cujus pars
ininiiiia fiii' there was loud profession of impartial dealing
in Religion. It was this lure which led me on. But very
soon I found the slime on the leaves, and indeed in his
private letters Thorns was virulence itself in all things
Catholic, So justly he lost the Cardinal, poor Dr. Rock,
West (Eirrionach) and last and least myself Is it not well
that the chief impulse of England should be hatred against
a Church that be she what she may is the Mother of us all
in Sacred Literature at least ? I must not lose sight of the
Aquinas on any account. Where is it } How can it be
got into England and when ? Please to answer these
queries. And now for tidings. A letter from Sir T.
Acland to announce a present of a couple of Ewes with
their Lambs from Holnicote his seat in Somerset near
Minehead where he feeds a noble Flock of the native
Horned Breed of Exmoor. He did this ten }'ears ago. A
letter from Turnbull. Did I tell you he has been my
correspondent for many years ? By the way I have for
you a singular Rclique. Once He was a Lord of Scottish
Land, rich to vastness — one of the cronies of Scott &c., in
their Advocates and Bannatyne Publications. He had in
those days a Library fit for a Cell of Benedictines. It is
the mere Catalogue that I intend for you. But it is rare
and monumental — recordincf that such thing's were and were
390 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
nobly lost He fell a Victim to those Religious persuasions
which made him a Catholic. Well, he writes that a Friend
of his own, W. Francisque Michel of Bordeaux, has edited
a Poem on the Sangraal and gathered into his Notes all that
is known about that Vessel. I have written to know where
the Book can be had."
To J. G. Godwin^ Esq.
"May v., 1862.
. . . " I suppose you will visit the pomps and vanities in
Town [the Exhibition]. To me it is a Scene of Terror.
When I recall the list of excluding Sins and among them
* Emulations strife envyings ' hatred wrath, I cannot but
regard this vast effort to foster the worst impulses of Adam
as a People's Sin. Then too the well known fact that no
great excellence ever grew out of competition or from
rivalry. The mightiest efforts the noblest achievements of
the mind and finger of Man are accomplished in solitude. . .
" That fatal Stone ! Did you know that in the House
of the Owner of the Koh-i-noor the loftiest always dies ?
I saw that prophecy in 1856-7."
To the same.
"May xj., 1862.
. . . "Does the Dean of Ch. Ch.^ ever stroll into your
domain — if so and you converse say you heard me say that
I quite exulted to have had the happiness to receive such ' a
Scholar and a ripe one ' in my Morww. Vicarage.
" When you go to seethe in the vast Cauldron don't
forget that the choice bits for the brain are in the Roman
Court. See likewise the Topaz Cup because the Sangraal
was a Vase of one perfect Gem — it may be of a Natural
gro\\'th — at all e\-ents not carven or shaped by any tool —
I Dr. Liddell.
CHARACTER IN HANDWRITING 391
it grew in some Womb of Gold or precious Stones. The
Paten at Genoa has always puzzled me — that is one
emerald — said to have been a spoil of Sulimaun's Temple
grasped by barbaric hand. Perhaps the new Provost of
Queen's may consent to surrender for a Photogram the
Demoniac Autograph. It would be a capital test of skill
in pronouncing Character in Handwriting."
To the same.
" May xxj., 1862.
..." This Morning by Carrier from Bideford arrived
in safety and good condition The Edition of St Thomas
which without your kind and active sympathy I should
never have possessed. All that I can say is that a greater
favour could not have been conferred on me. The type
will be legible for I hope many years whereas that of my
Folio in former use has been fading away from my ocular
faculties for some time. Again and again I thank you. , . .
..." I will say no more till I hear from you except that
not a day will now glide without a recurrence of your name
in my snuggery when I take down a vol : of your Books."
To the same.
"Aug : 5, 1862.
" Jul}' exhausted and you have not appeared among the
many who have visited our Rocks. Last Week every day
and the week before five times we, as the great folks say,
' received.' And such a mixed multitude as came up out
of Egypt — among them some known to you b}' name.
Bromley — is the spelling right ? — the Master of the training
Place at Cheltenham — R. , Curator at K. , a
Man who fulfilled the prophecy of his repugnant Nose and
controverted all that was said. He came with Maskell —
and man}- nameless men. But not among them one better
392
LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
known than yourself. Did you not announce such a
journey — or is it yet to come ? I hope so and I trust still
to see you enter in. We were glad to see you when last
you came, and you have augmented your welcome since by
many kindly courtesies. We have both been unwell . . .
My chief solace has been my St. Thos. Do you know why
Cajetan's Notes are on the expurgated list at the Vatican ?
My authority that it is so is Maskell, but he cannot tell me
why."
To Jt G» Godwin^ Esq.
"Septr. ix., 1862.
" My dear Sir,
" You are as I infer once more in the happy midst
of your Books and Maps, &c., and you can, like the Bee,
* your fragrant fortress build ' for the memory and solace
of the years that will come when the shadows lengthen on
the wall. Our Harvest Home was chimed last Saturday
Night not without Song. Be it well known that until my
Corn was safe beneath the thatch my Warden Cann (our
companion that night) would not put a single sickle into
his own Wheat — among the faithless, faithful he. And now
my Farmers confess that the Parson's Crops are the heaviest
and his Harvest over first of all the Parish. Amid the vary-
ing grounds of ecclesiastical fame around us this is
something.
..." Yesterday before I was dressed it was announced
to me that a Gentleman had asked for the key of the
Church and wished to see me. It was Mr. M. of
Oxford. He had slept at our Beer House on the Green.
We gave him a cup of tea and talked Oxford for an hour
till he started for Bude. I did not fall in with him, indeed
no one could coalesce with that repugnant nose of his. By
the laws of Lavater^ such men viust contradict all you say.
' Author of a work on Physiognomy.
A REPUGNANT NOSE 393
When a Man rears for his Banner a Nose which is a Boss,
a thick and knobby feature, he cannot avoid butting at his
Neighbour's voice like a surly ram. Mark men with podgy
noses and observe how they plunge against all that you
advance. We have had a billowy week (various visitors)
and all the while the Gulf Stream of the Harvest rushing
through our troublous Sea. . . The Vex of the coming Con-
firmation is now great. No standard of age or preparation
and a careful disclaimer from the Bishop^ that his access or
his Office can confer any good on a ceremony which is so
entirely the Children's home — what a zeal they show to
prove that their Ministry contains no grace, has nothing to
confer ! You remember how I run to prose and will bear
with me."
To the same.
"Sept. xij., 1862.
..." I have heard two names suggested as Successors
to J. Cant. One Tait now Bp. of London : the other
Lonsdale of Lichfield. Of the latter I lately heard that
when a friend applied to him in favour of a Clergyman
whom he described as most earnest — all his Soul in his
work — such a capital Parish Priest, Said the Bp, ' But is he
chaste ? Does he pay his debts ? Can you rely on his
word ? Because I would begin with a few pagan virtues,
we will come to your phraseology bye and bye.' "
To the same.
"Octr. v., 1862.
..." What is the cost of the Benedictine Edition of St.
Jerome? No start for Jeune you perceive or Jacobson in
the links of the House that Jack built, the English
Bishopric. Is Tait to be by the Wrath of God ArchBp. of
■ Net Bishop Phillpotts.
394 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
York ? Field/ Vicar of Madingley, where the Prince of
Wales sojourned while at Cambridge, and his Wife, dined
with us last week. They told us that the Queen still
causes the Shaving Water to be carried up every day for
the Dead Prince and commands his Bread and Butter to
be cut daily. They could not comprehend the reason why
until we explained to them the tenets of Swedenborg in
w^hich he died.
" Two lines ^ I remember never written —
" Ho ! for the Sangraal mystic Vase of God,
That held, hke Christ's own heart, a Hin of Blood."
' In another letter he says, "His (Field's) wife is a Sister-in-law of Horatio
Tennyson, and was full of all the Poet's family."
= These became the first two lines of 'The Quest of the Sangraal.'
CHAPTER XVIII
Wreck and Desolation
Loss OF THE * Bencoolen ' — ' A Croon on Hennacliff ' —
Death of Mrs. Hawker
" Ho I gossip ! for Bude Haven :
There be corpses six or eight."
One of the most terrible wrecks remembered in Cornwall
took place at Bude on 21st October 1862. Hawker,
though not an eye-witness, has left a vivid account of the
event in a letter to Mr. Godwin : —
"Oct. 23, 1862.
" I must resign every topic to tell you of the one
absorbing event of this week. On Thursday last Sir T.
Acland, Griffiths and the Miss Troytes dined here. On
ascending Hennacliff our tall cliff we saw Wales, and I at
once prophesied the immediate result of that Sight A
Hurricane in 48 hours. It came and it lasted till yester-
day Seven Days and Nights. Wrecks were of course
imminent. On Tuesday at Two O'clock Afternoon a
hull was seen off Bude wallowing in the billows. All
rushed to the Shore. At Three she struck on the Sand
close to the Breakwater — not 300 yards from the Rocks.
Manby's apparatus was brought down — a Rocket fired
and a Rope was carried over the Ship. The Mate sprang
to clutch it — missed — and fell into the Sea to be seen no
395
396 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
more alive. ' Another Rope ! ' was the cry. But from
the mismanagement of those in charge there was no other
there. They then saw the poor fellows — 34 — (two lost
before) constructing a Raft and launching it. A Call for
the Life Boat, one of large cost provided with all good
gear kept close by. She was run down to the Water. A
Shout for Men — none — A few of the Hovillers, pilot men,
got on board, but refused to put off — Conceive the Scene
— the Baronet shrieking in vain — all Bude lining the
Cliffs and Shore — Well well — to abbreviate a horror, The
Raft was tossed over. About six were washed ashore with
life in them. Four corpses, and the rest were carried off to
Sea dead — 26 corpses are somewhere in our Waters, and
my men are watching for their coming on shore. The
County gives 5/0 for finding each corpse, and I give 5/0
more. Therefore they are generally found and brought
here to the Vicarage where the inquest and the attendant
events nearly kill me. I went down to the Scene on
Wednesday and what a scene ! The total Sand covered
with cases of Machinery and other Freight. She was the
Bencoolen from Liverpool for Bombay with Machinery for
some new Cotton-cleansing plan in India and for
Telegraphic lines on Railways, etc., etc. Just where she
struck lay the lower half of the Hull — the upper half had
washed away and was stranded opposite the Cottage.
Hordes of people picking up — Salvors with Carts and
Horses — and lookers on. It reminded me of old Holings-
hed's definition ' a place called Bedes Haven (Bede a
Grave).' When the Masts went over, the Captain, married
a fortnight before, rushed down into his Cabin drank a
bottle of Brandy and was seen no more. The Country
rings with crys of shame on the dastards of Bude. . . .
Ten years since the Alonzo of Stockton - on - Tees
came ashore at Bude — one mile from Shore — I was
•^('
u
ii< )M \> ll^■|^I•: \i I wii ( iDi 11 r, \k. i\i. i i
(1^' 'i;s I 7 ■■;. Dill) .'-' JIM-. 171)
'A CROON ON HENNACLIFF' 397
there watching her. I had the Life Boat launched. I
offered a Sovereign each to get men, and I offered to go
myself with them. I went on board and challenged them
to come with me. Only one man came at my call — next
day the Sea lulled and a calm — the scoundrels went on
board with the same boat and robbed the vessel."
The Bencoolen wreck inspired the verses ' A Croon
on Hennacliff,' a bitter satire aimed at the Bude men
who failed to rescue the crew. But Hawker's criticism of
their conduct seems to have been unjust. He was pre-
judiced against them to some extent because the Bude
people were mostly Dissenters [see pages 461-2]. It must
be remembered that wrecks always agitated him intensely,
and that the letters here quoted were written at fever-heat.
An eye-witness of the disaster ^ says that there were
really no skilled hands available to man the life-boat. Of
the nineteen little coasting vessels belonging to Bude, only
two happened to be in harbour. The crew of the life-boat
therefore consisted chiefly of shore men unaccustomed to
go out in such tremendous seas. The vessel, he says, was
beautifully steered for the difficult entrance of the harbour,
flags being put up to guide her, but she was too large for
the Channel and grounded at the entrance, just off the
end of the breakwater. There was just one chance when
they might conceivably have reached the ship, and that
was when she swung round at the end of the breakwater,
• A description of the wreck will be found in Mr. C. F. Crofton's
interesting little book ' Bencoolen to Capricorno,' an account of wrecks at
or near Bude from 1862 to 1900. "It is sometimes asked," he writes,
" ' Why did not the life-boat go out? ' But I do not think that^this question
is put by any sensible man who has seen the awful^possibilitics of a Bude
sea." He pays a warm tribute to the heroism of Bude men in saving life
from wrecks. "These actions are done by them, not in a spirit of dare-
devil recklessness, but quietly, unobtrusively, in the interests of humanity.
. . . To reckon such men among one's personal friends is indeed a privilege."
398 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
forming as it were another breakwater beyond. But the
opportunity passed, and within twenty minutes her planks
were flying out of her.
On the 1 2th Novr. 1862, Hawker writes to Mr. God-
win : —
" The Channel is full of wreck — Cargo — and among it
corpses — 13 came ashore at Bude at the time of the wreck,
some lashed to the raft — these are buried all in one pit in
Bude Churchyard.'' This I do not call Christian Burial.
We have lived in continual horror ever since, i.e., in sad
and solemn expectation of the Dead. Accordingly on
Tuesday the 4th the message came at Night, ' A Corpse
ashore, Sir, at Stanbury Mouth,' a Creek a Mile South.
Then came the mournful detail — Six Bearers with staves
and planks sent off to bring the Stranger — my Lych
House cleared and a plank or two laid to receive the dead.
A message — They are nearly come — I go out into the
Moonlight bareheaded and when I come near I greet the
nameless Dead with the Sentences ' I am the Resurrection
and the Life,' &c. — They lay down their burthen at my feet
— I look upon the Dead — Tall — Stout — wellgrown — Boots
on. Elastic, and Socks — girded with a Rope round the
Waist. I give him in charge to the Sexton and his Wife
to cleanse, to arrange, to clothe the dead. I order a strong
Coffin and the Corpse is locked in for the Night. I write
a letter for the Coroner and deliver it for transit to the
Police. And here the misery begins. Instead of a direct
Messenger, the Parish Constable, there is a new and there-
fore a clumsy loathsome law. The letter is passed on from
Parish to Parish thro' 4 or 5 hands — some at home, some
to be searched for in the Night — and thus by this vague
and tardy line of successional Police my letter only arrives
with the Coroner at Noon next day. He fills up at my
I The figurehead of the BencooUn stands in Bude Churchyard.
THIRTIETH SAILOR BURIED 399
request a Warrant to bury, the inquest being uncalled for,
but being sent by the same mode I do not receive it until
Noon on Thursday, and by that time the poor dissolving
Carcase of Adam, 17 days dead, has so filled the surround-
ing air that it is only by a strong effort of my own and by
drenching my men with gin for Bearers, that I can fulfil
that duty which must be done, but which nothing could
sustain a man to perform but the remembrance that to
bury the dead won Raphael to Tobit's house and is one of
the Seven Corporal Acts of Mercy for a Christian Man.
Well — Just as we had begun to recover ourselves again on
Tuesday last another Corpse arrived on my Shore with
the selfsame detail to be done, and a few days since I was
startled at night with a message, ' A Woman has brought
a Man's Right Foot, Sir, picked up at Combe.' This too
we have laid in the ground till perhaps its Body too may
come. And now with 12 Bodies still unfound and the
Set of the Current always urging on the Creeks of Mor-
wenstow you will understand the nervous wretched state
in which we listen all day and all night for those thrilling
knocks at the door which announce the advent of the dead.
When all is done it is not without a Battle that we can
win from the County Rate about 30/0 a corpse for each
interment, the balance, always 2£ or 3^, coming from my
own purse. And I have this day buried my Thirtieth
Sailor in the Seaman's Burial Ground by the Upper Trees.
I thought you might like to know the details of this
Branch of ministerial duty here by the Sea."
To Mrs. Watson.
" Xovr. 30, 1863.
..." No more corpses thank God in this Parish on
shore. But strange to say My letter to Killerton to tell
Sir T. Acland of the neglect at Bude to search the Sand
400 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
in the Hull of the Wreck brought orders from him to have
an examination made and they found immediately and
not very far from the Surface the Body of the chief Mate.
Yet the Survivors said that his leg was broken by the Fall
of the Mast and that they had lashed him to the raft when
they pushed off from the Vessel. Another total falsehood
and another evidence that there was some vile atrocity
committed among that crew. It really seemed as though
it were true, as the Sailors at Melita said of St. Paul, that
Vengeance suffered them not to live. Braund who has
called here twice on his visits to the sick gave sad accounts
of the Scene. Two or three when they were washed
ashore were warm and moved But all efforts at resuscita-
tion were ineffectual. One opened his eyes and died. In
their pockets were found evidences of crime. The Gold
Watch of the Captain as I told you in the Steward's
Pocket and leaden bullets in another and a Revolver.
Lloyds gave Braund a vote of thanks and a handsome
douceur. Sir Thomas has sent me two handsome Photo-
graphs. One is of his own Statue ^ in Granite set up in
Northernhay in Exeter by subscription — this is framed
and glazed — the other is a view of the Bencoolen as she
lay on the Sands the day after the Wreck with people
around her."
"Deer. 7th, 1862.
" My Dear Mrs. Watson,
"The heart of a woman never forgets is the say-
ing of a wise man and I believe that in all the best affec-
tions and feelings of the Soul the memory of your Sex is
unfailing. I suppressed all mention of the Day of my
Birth and thought that perhaps it might escape your
recollection. But the fidelity of your remembrance re-
called the fatal third of this month when with me sorrow
' Cf. Hawker's poem on this statue.
IS LIFE WORTH LIVING? 401
began. The first sound that we utter is a cry as if we
knew what a world of mourning we had entered into. It
is a very difficult thing to decide and one that puzzled
Solomon the King whether it is best to have been or no.
On the one hand a Poet writes —
" Count o'er the joys thy days have seen :
Count o'er thine hours from anguish free :
And know, whatever thou hast been,
'Tis something better not to be.
On the other hand there is the theological doctrine that it
is so much better to have life than not that Souls are
given even to Children born unlawfully on that account.
Still when one comes to survey one's own individual life
it is very difficult to avoid thinking that the words of Job
are right ' Would to God that I had died upon the knees.
Woe unto the night in which it was said " There is a man-
child born."' What can I call my own poor existence?
After all a most unavailing life. As to what I have been
able to do for a few Souls another could have done it as
well — And yet perhaps I am ungrateful. I have been able
to accomplish many things for this remote and wild place
which others might have shrunk from. Altho' most ruinous
to me there are here a Vicarage and Glebe Houses — A
School and Master's abode — A restored Church — and
other Parochial Comforts which may lead the future
Incumbents to be glad that I went before them. I found
it a Wilderness and I shall leave it a habitable place for
those I know not.
" Never yet during my incumbency of 27 years did the
pros{)ccts of farmers and labourers and poor assume so dark
a hue. They come to me for advice. If they have a few
pounds out of the wreck my advice always is * Emigrate ! '
And accordingly nearly a hundred in the current year go
2 c
402 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
across the Sea. Our population in 1851 was 1074 in 1861
it was 868 a decrease not only of 206 but also of that in-
crease which in a thriving parish ought to have so accrued
as to have made the 1074 into 1280."
In the winter of 1862-3 Mrs. Hawker fell ill with
bronchitis. She was then eighty years of age, and her
health for some time had been gradually failing. Hawker's
letters during her last illness are full of passionate and
almost incoherent grief Only a few of the calmer passages
need be given here. On January ist, 1863, he writes to
Mrs. Watson : —
" I thank my God and Saviour that all is done that can
or could be done.
..." Did I relate to you about Dr. Budd ? When
I resolved to send for him my poor Warden Cann offered
himself to go, and another man offered to go to Whitstone
for my Sister. Both were off at Seven O'Clock in the
Evening and travelled all thro' that Night, to Barnstaple
30 miles, to Whitstone 15 miles. They were all here by
6 O'clock in the morning I think. . . ,
" My Sister and her daughter are the best nurses that
ever existed.
"So the warfare is waged, on the one hand disease and
age, on the other medicine diet and care, and God the
merciful on high holding his hand over all. I have vowed
a vow to my Master that if he will spare her to me a little
longer yet I will give up all my strength all my means all my
time to God's Poor, washing thus my own dear Master's feet.
" What would I not give in the shape of mone\' or goods
for the surety that God would spare her life ? How much
of my own life would I not give to purchase prolongation of
days for her ? . . , Not a murmur — now and then a word to
comfort me — if Angels could die, so would they pass away."
DEATH OF MRS. HAWKER 403
To Rev. W. D. Anderson.
" My Dear Sir,
" My poor Mrs, Hawker has been slowly dying
15 days. She breathes still and no more — I shall hence-
forth be a living corpse — crushed. When I can write I
will — Her awful harmlessness is hard to bear.
" Yrs. always,
" R. S. Hawker."
To Mrs. Watson.
"Feby. 2, 1863.
" My dear friend shall learn from my own hand that
She our dear and blameless Sufferer is at rest. She passed
away without much pain at Two O'clock. I was with her
all Night until she became unconscious and then they took
me into another room. She had much pain during the
night, but nothing violent. Her last Word to me was
* Go lie down, dear, you will want your strength,' After
I went away she knew no one nor uttered any coherent or
intelligible word. Light is sown for the righteous and joy-
ful gladness for such as are true-hearted.^ I am somewhat
calm and I do not shed many tears But who will grieve as
I grieve ?
"Yrs, aff,
" R, S, Hawker,"
His announcement to Mr, Godwin is touchingly brief
and simple : —
' Writing to Mrs. Watson some months later he says, " Pray get a Book
of Common Prayer — Find the 97th Psahn — Read the nth verse — and you will
know the only words that 1 intend to record on the Flat Stone in Church
besides the name and date. The last word [' true-hearted 'j expresses her
total character."
404
LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
"Feb. 3, 1863.
" Dear Mr. Godwin,
" My Brave my true-hearted Wife died yesterday
at 2 o'clock — happy as a harmless child.
" Yrs. in sorrow,
" R. S. H."
To Mrs. Watson.
"Feby. 8, 1863.
" My Very Dear Friend,
" I thank you gratefully for your kind thoughts
and words — I cannot write much yet. It was yesterday
that we committed to the silent ground my poor darling's
quiet frame. All was done as she would herself have
wished — peacefully — without pretence and in decent care
— Her grave just outside her Seat door in Church where
the Chancel meets the Nave. After death for a couple of
hours her countenance changed so with pain, for she had
some pain at last after I left the room — so much that they
advised me not to see her. But after a few hours such a
most blessed alteration ensued, that I was called in. And
there she lay with full thirty years gone from her age — not
one wrinkle on her face nor line, and on her lip such a
sweet and placid smile that I shall see it to my dying day
— a smile that said ' Never mind. Don't grieve,' as she
often said to me before during her last days — a smile that
was a signal of peace and happiness — such a look as I
could not have believed the dead could wear. The Nurse
said she had never beheld such a look before — And, it
came on after hours had passed — My darling — She told
me calmly all she wished me to do — all I had to arrange
for my own comfort — and talked so happily of going away
to God that no one could ever wish her to remain in such
a world of anguish as ours.
LETTER FROM DR. JEUNE 405
" The remnant of my life must be a quiet lonely-
unbroken time of thought and prayer.
" It will be long before I shall sleep. Nearly 40 years
and never 5 Nights away from her. And now I start up
to desolation. Every thought and plan centred in her —
Husband and Wife but a trivial part of the tie. God bless
you and rescue me from despair.
" Yrs. affectionately,
" R. S. Hawker."
Among the many letters of condolence is one from Dr.
Jeune : —
" Pembroke College, Oxford. Feb. 14, 1863.
"Dear Hawker,
" I have heard with much sympathy and regret
that your beloved wife is no more. You will have every
consolation which can alleviate such a visitation. She had
reached a ripe old age, her life had been happy, and she
died in the hope of a glorious immortality. On your side,
you have the recollection that you have well fulfilled your
obligations as a Christian husband, that you have made
her happy for a long course of years, and that your kind-
ness, of which I have heard, has assiduously relieved the
weariness of age and loss of sight. Yet your loss is a
grievous loss ; and what should console may for some
time yet only make more piercing your grief. My wife
desires me to express her feelings of sorrow and regard ;
you will not doubt how sincerely prays for your comfort
and happiness your old friend,
"Francis Jeune."
"Feby. 15, 1S63.
" My Dear Friend Mrs. Watson,
"To-day has been indeed a time of great trial —
we have all been to Church and to visit as the usage here
4o6 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
is the grave. Mr, Chope preached her sermon ^ from the
text, ' Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord.' The
Church was quite full. All came even the Dissenters to
testify their respect and the tears shed were many and
loud. The scene as I need not say was too much for
me nor have I yet recovered the terrible thoughts that
overwhelmed me as I stood by her dear Grave and fancied
her sweet hands folded and as it were held out towards me
when I looked on her, and one with her ring. O Lord
heal me for my heart is broken!"
To Mrs. Watson.
"Feby. 22, 1863.
" I have been so accustomed to identify and blend every
thought and action and event with her that I cannot
realize the fact that I am alone — alone for ever. She was
many years older than I in age although not in look or in
speech or manner, and even after death Joanna told me
with astonishment that her limbs and form were neither
wasted nor worn but like a woman of forty, always
to me young and cheerful and kind. In all my
griefs I used to go to her and consult and she gave me
advice and encouragement. When my letters came I
went to her to read them and hundreds of times I should
have shrunk into ruin but for her soothing words. For
herself she never incurred a bill or spent one shilling that
could be avoided. Her gowns and other clothing I have
sent for for Years unknown to her until it came home. In
her noble disinterestedness she avoided every personal out-
lay and it was by watching and by stealth that I found out
what articles of wearing apparel she required. On close
'^ The Rev. T. H. Chope, who is still Vicar of Hartland, writes with
reference to this sermon, " I remember during the delivery of it looking down
upon her faithful dog lying on the slab over her grave at the Foot of the
Pulpit."
"TEARS OF THE WIDOWER" 407
remembrance of the 40 years I cannot discover a single
instance of selfishness of wrongful feeling in all her whole
life. It has soothed me exceedingly to find how all in my
Parish loved my poor dear unassuming wife. She made
no pretences of any kind, was never demonstrative even
to those she loved best, but then every word was true and
sincere, every thought high-principled and just and kind.
A thought of self never debased her mind. All concur
from the Bishop and Sir Thomas Acland down to the
lowliest Servants that never can she be replaced. And as
I vowed before her She shall rule this House from her
Grave. I ask myself every hour what does she wish me
to do and I do it. How would she deal with this or that
emergency ? and so I follow her desires. I thought I saw
her dear face a night or two agone — ^just by her long-
accustomed chair. I said to my Niece ' Look there ! It
is your Aunt's face 1 ' But whether reality or my dream I
cannot rightly tell. In visions of the night I have seen
her often and she has asked me to lift her by the hand as
she did in life and spoken to me so affectionately that I
grieved to awake and find her gone.^
" You would have liked Thynne's Sermon to-day. His
text was, • After the Fire a Still small voice,' and the pith
of his Doctrine was that Elijah could endure the Earth-
quake and brave the Storm and encounter the fire but was
shaken more than he ought to be by the still small voice.
Just so he said there were men (meaning myself) who
could boldly face hard trials of the world, and who
did not fear the great terrors of men, who nevertheless
were prone to give way and to fall prostrate before the
■ Cf. "Tears of the widower, when he sees
A late-lost form that sleep reveals,
And moves his doubtful arms, and feels
Her place is empty."
In Memoriam .
4o8 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
approach of a lowlier grief or household sorrow. I can-
not brave my Service yet. I should fall down upon her
very grave. It is close to my pulpit and desk. I shall
look down on it near me as long as I live."
To Rev. W. D. Anderson.
"March v., 1863.
" My Dear Sir,
"I shall be glad to hear how you are and where
you intend to fix your abode. Remember you are still in
the noon of life and have the chief future of man's exist-
ence still before you. Unlike my desolate self, to whom
the end of all things is now so near, that it cannot matter
much where I live and how the fragment of my days may
fall to dust. I am indeed crushed. Every thought and
feeling and plan have been so blended and fastened on Her
that I am. like a Man without a hope or fear. I shall have
to suffer days of great bitterness before I die and indeed
my own death is as it were already begun.
..." God bless you, dear Anderson, is my broken-
hearted prayer.
" Yrs. always,
" R. S. Hawker."
To Mrs. Watson.
" March 22, 1863.
..." You ask me how I account for all my losses on
the farm. Not by want of care. Cann has taken ten
times more than I ever could, but Shakespeare explains it
when he writes —
" When sorrows come they come not single spies
But in battahons."
" Have you not observed that when death enters a house
"MY PATH IS CLEAR" 409
other deaths follow — perhaps my own — and when trouble
settles down on a house it multiplies. All our cats except
one are dead, and he, poor fellow, follows me about crying
and as I fancy nestling about my legs as if he thought we
were both lonely and our companions gone."
To the same.
"March 29, 1863.
" My path is clear before. Duty done and patience
under God's hand and waiting for my time to come also."
CHAPTER XIX
1863. 'The Quest of the Sangraal.'
Hawker's Masterpiece — Compared with Tennyson's ' Holy
Grail' — Opinions of Longfellow and Tennyson — The
Earl of Carlisle at Morwenstow — Sketches the Vicar
ON Clovelly Quay — Fire at the Vicarage — Horatio
Walpole Calls — A New Parishioner — "A Blessing
Or — ?" — Miss " Lebjinckski " — "Slightly Cracked" —
A Lucky Speculation of Sir Galahad — The Demon-Bird —
Letter to the Queen — " An Utter Donkey " — Letter
FROM Cardinal Wiseman — " Ichabod."
All poets, in different language, confirm the dictum of
Shelley, that
" Our sweetest songs are those that tell of saddest thought."
And so it was with Hawker, that under the inspiration of
sorrow he achieved his masterpiece. His wife's death left
him more than ever alone, and the desolation of a
childless old age spread drearily before him. He sought
relief in poetry, and in the words which he puts into the
mouth of King Arthur he expresses his own loneliness.
In a letter to a friend he says — "You will recognize the
Writer speaking with the lips of another in my ' Quest.'
" I have no son, no daughter, of my loins.
To breathe, 'mid future men, their father's name :
My blood will perish when these veins are dry j
410
A GREAT RELIGIOUS POET 411
Yet am I fain some deeds of mine should live —
I would not be forgotten in this land :
I yearn that men I know not, men unborn,
Should find, amid these fields, King Arthur's fame !
Here let them say, by proud Dundagel's walls —
' They brought the Sangraal back by his command,
They touched these rugged rocks with hues of God : '
So shall my name have worship, and my land."
" The plan of the poem," writes Mr. Godwin, "had long
been in his mind, and it was to have embraced three other
chants. However he only wrote the opening lines of the
second : —
" * Ho ! for the Sangraal, once again I cleave
The dream of Echo with the shout of Song.
Come, let us trace Lord Lancelot's northward way.' "
Everyone who knows the first chant must regret that the
others were never accomplished. The majesty of the sea
is in this poem. The great lines follow each other with a
measured roll and thunder,
" Like as the waves make towards the pebbled shore."
There is also to be felt throughout the writer's intense
devotion to his creed. It is the spirit of the Apocalypse
wrought into blank verse. Hawker is too often regarded
as merely a versifier of local legends. He himself in a
letter resents being " damned with the faint praise of a
ballad-monger." As a matter of fact, he is among the
greater religious poets of England. He has not the de-
fect of mere Churchiness. There is no mild sermonizing or
dry metaphysical speculation in his verse. It is concrete
and vi\-id, full of colour and romance.
The legend of the Graal seems to have been an almost
412 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
life-long study of Hawker's, to judge from the following
letter to Mrs. Watson written just before his ' Quest ' w^as
published : —
" 22 Nov., 1863.
" The Sangraal, as I think I have said before, was the
Chalice in which our Lord celebrated his last Passover of
the Jews and his First Eucharist as the Lord of the Church.
It was preserved by Joseph of Arimathea, so runs the
Legend, and brought by him to Glastonbury, where his
Staff took root and became the celebrated Christmas
Thorn. It was taken away when the Land became sinful,
and the Search for it was proclaimed at Dundagel by
King Arthur to the Knights of the Round Table. The
Sangraal has always been regarded as the Type of the
Gospel, and the loss and recovery are emblems of the
failure of our light and its Restoration.
" But I must tell you the source of this theme for me.
Nine and thirty years agone on the 4th of Novr. 1824 [sic]
I was married, and we went from Stratton, where my Father
was Vicar, to Dundagel in Lodgings for a Month — close to
the Castle of King Arthur and amid the legends of his life
and deeds. There we used to roam about and read all
that could be found about those Old-World Histories, and
often was this legend of the Sangraal talked of as a fine
Subject for Verse. Often I have said ' If I could but throw
myself back to King Arthur's time and write what he would
have said and thought it would make a good Cornish Book.'
The crest of Her Family was three Birds, the red-legged
Chough, King Arthur's Bird, as the common people call it
around the Castle. Thus I have told you but to nobody
else the reason of my choice, and whereas, as you know,
the custom is to select some great Person as a Patron and
to dedicate your Work to Him or Her, I shall not do so —
ETYMOLOGY OF 'SANGRAAL' 413
but in the Place of the Dedication will stand this — ' To : a
vacant Chair : and an added Stone : I chant these solitary-
sounds : '
" It is to me so striking and so strange that after nine
and thirty years of travel thro' life I come back to the same
old scene, circling like some hunted animal to die where
my life was born.
" I don't hope or suppose that you will care about such
a Poem, because I have been compelled to make it
mediaeval and to speak as they spoke in those old times.
It will be a 2/6 book and if I can sell 200 copies the out-
lay will be paid for. Some men can sell 1000 copies in a
month. But they are well known and I am the lonely
solitary Vicar of Mw. Well, I can say as well as if I were
the Bishop of Exeter, 'God bless yours and you,' and I
can always sincerely be
"Yours affectionately,
"R. S. Hawker."
In 1861 he wrote to Mr. West: —
" What is the exact origin etymon and usage of Sang-
real ? It is W. Maskell's opinion that some reference was
intended to the Real Blood, but I don't think so, and I
want to establish by the verbal Elements ' Holy Vessel.'
That it was a native Gem or precious Stone, ' one whole
Chrysol}'te,' is the suggestion of Sister Emmerich the
Jjclgian ecstatic. She saw it first in the hands of
Melchisedech who brought in it to Abraham the Myth of
Bread and Wine. Afterwards in the Time of Solomon
she describes it as a Vessel of deep veneration, and there
is now at Genoa a dish — one pure emerald — which they
shew and revere as a relique of that King's Time and
Worship. But under the Herods, when many valuable
Utensils of Gold and Jewels had been stealthily withdrawn,
414 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
this Vase was rescued and preserved until it arrived in the
family of Veronica, who delivered it to St. Peter and St.
John for the usage of their Master at his final Pasch and
First ' sacring of the Mass.' After the Cross this Chalice
or ' Charger,' for it was shallower than a chalice and yet
deeper than a dish, was cherished by Joseph of Arimathea
who brought it they say to England and delivered it to
certain of God's messengers — when he died you remember
that the search for the Sangreal was the theme of many a
graphic legend of old time. I shall be really glad if you
can verify the Etymon of the Name. Here I have no
access to a single Book."
To another friend he wrote, some years later : —
" I know not that I can give you any better authority
for the meaning of Sangraal than the literal interpretation
of the old French words, San the abbreviated form of
Saint, Holy, and Graal, or Grayle, a chalice, cup, or bowl,
or deep charger, or dish. Villemarque the French writer
on the romance of King Arthur takes it in this literal
sense, so does the Life of King Arthur by Sir Thomas
Malory and twenty other books. If Tennyson or Mon-
talembert use it for the contents of the Vase, sc. blood, this
is by a perverted use of Metonymy, a figure which
employs a part of anything for the whole. It is so
undoubted a matter to call the Chalice used at the first
Eucharist Sangraal that it hardly requires authority beyond
the continual and unbroken use."
Hawker's poem naturally suggests a comparison with
Tennyson's ' Holy Grail.' They approached the subject
in different ways, Tennyson as the pure artist. Hawker as
the fervent mystic. In a letter to Mr. Godwin, dated 5
Aug. 1862, Hawker says: —
" Maskell has bought in London this visit the First
Edition (1830) of Tennyson's Poems. There are 30 pieces
TENNYSON'S 'HOLY GRAIL' 415
in it which he never repubHshed. I have the Book now in
the House & I am going, if I can find time, to copy them.
One or two strike me as the Writings of a ReHgious Man,
such as I fear he is not now, being a Maurician, Anything
Churchy would have been fatal to his future fame in
England, therefore he cut all such. This is my version.
Any tidings of y Sangreal ? I wanted him (T) to under-
take that theme : it would make a magnificent Idyll. But
I don't think somehow that he is endowed with the
necessary faculty to deal with it. He is not the Father of
a Reverential Boss. I ought to explain. Starting with
the patristic axiom, Dai Fonnani Anima — The Soul it is
that gives the corporeal & cranial mould, I hold that we
are the Fathers of our own Bumps, and not, as the
Phrenologists affirm, the Sons. And with this thought I
don't conceive Tennyson would so revere the Sangreal as
to win the Grace demanded in its Scribe."
Tennyson himself had the same feeling. In October
1859 he wrote to the Duke of Argyll, —
" As to Macaulay's suggestion of the Sangreal, I doubt
whether such a subject could be handled in these days
without incurring a charge of irreverence. It would be too
much like playing with sacred things. The old writers
believed in the Sangreal. Many years ago I did write
' Lancelot's Quest of the Grail ' in as good verses as I ever
wrote, no, I did not write, I made it in my head, and it
has now altogether slipt out of my memory."
Tennyson's ' Holy Grail ' was not published until 1869,
five years after Hawker's ' Quest.' The two poems arc
conceived in such a different spirit, set in such a different
framework, and based on such different versions of the
legend, that they cannot be compared, as it were, line by
line. For the incidents of the tale Tennyson follows
Malory, while Hawker gives rein to his own imagination.
4i6 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
Tennyson makes Arthur disapprove the Quest. Hawker
makes him the moving spirit. The quality of Tennyson's
poem is ethereal beauty ; that of Hawker's rugged strength.
Tennyson's language is pictorial, Hawker's rhetorical.
There is nothing in Hawker's verse of that elaborate
mosaic of syllables such as,
" The spires
Prick'd with incredible pinnacles into heaven."
or the consummate vowel-changes in such lines as
" Only the rounded moon
Thro' the tall oriel on the rolling sea."
Hawker uses a broader manner. His eloquence is more
forthright and simple. His blank verse is to the smooth
rhythm of Tennyson as the dash of breakers to the ripple
of a lake : the brattle of trumpets to the " horns of
Elfland faintly blowing." Only in one instance can
passages in the two poems be said to correspond in subject,
and that is in the legend of Joseph of Arimathea, This is
Tennyson's version : —
" ' Nay, monk ! what phantom ? ' answer'd Percivale.
' The cup, the cup itself, from which Our Lord
Drank at the last sad supper with his own.
This, from the blessed land of Aromat —
After the day of darkness, when the dead
Went wandering o'er Moriah — the good saint,
Arimathean Joseph, journeying brought
To Glastonbury, where the winter thorn
Blossoms at Christmas, mindful of Our Lord.
And there awhile it bode ; and if a man
Could touch or see it, he was heal'd at once,
By faith, of all his ills. But then the times
Grew to such evil that the holy cup
Was caught away to Heaven, and disappeared.' "
TENNYSON AND HAWKER 417
Hawker takes longer to cover the same ground : —
" ' Then came Sir Joseph, hight of Arimathee,
Bearing that awful Vase, the Sangraal !
The Vessel of the Pasch, Shere Thursday night,
The selfsame Cup, wherein the faithful wine
Heard God, and was obedient unto Blood.
Therewith he knelt and gathered blessfed drops
From his dear Master's Side that sadly fell.
The ruddy dews from the great tree of life :
Sweet Lord ! what treasures ! like the priceless gems
Hid in the tawny casket of a King, —
A ransom for an army — one by one !
" * He lived long centuries and prophesied,
A girded pilgrim ever and anon,
Cross-staff in hand, and, folded at his side,
The mystic marvel of the feast of blood.
Once, in old time, he stood in this dear land,
Enthrall'd — for lo ! a sign ! his grounded staff
Took root, and branch'd, and bloom'd, like Aaron's rod :
Thence came the shrine, the cell ; therefore he dwelt,
The vassal of the Vase, at Avalon !
" ' This could not last, for evil days came on.
And evil men : the garbage of their sin
Tainted this land, and all things holy fled.
I'he Sangraal was not.' "
To sum up the comparison, it may be said that while the
Laureate's Idyll surpasses the Cornish Vicar's fragment as
a work of art, the latter poem has in it more of the breath
of life. Hawker, by virtue of his faith and his mediaeval
sympathies, tells the talc with an air of conviction and an
earnestness of purpose that arc lacking to the greater
poet, and makes the shadowy figures of chivalry live and
move upon the page.
2 D
4i8 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
Hawker well knew the merits of his own work, and,
with those who shared his confidence, was not restrained
by false modesty from measuring himself against the
Laureate, In 1870 he writes to Mr. Godwin: —
. . . "Tennyson has sent me his ' Holy Grail' with his
Autograph. I have read it — and my first thought was,
* Would to God I had but one friend on Earth who would
contrast mine with his and publish passages side by side.'
When the themes concur I should have no fear of the
result." . . .
Again, in the same year, he writes : —
" I have received of late several satisfactory testimonies
which confirm your good opinion of that Poem. In
America Longfellow said lately to Mrs. Jared Sparks ' I
have read Tennyson's ' Holy Grail ' and Mr. Hawker's
* Quest,' and I think the latter poem far superior to the
Laureate's.' King [R. J.], the Critic who is on the Staff
of the Quarterly, has written the same opinion to me. I
know that one day my ' Quest ' will be discussed line by line
and the myths and legends understood."
Having asked his publisher for a few copies of ' The
Quest,' he says to Mr. Godwin, " I want them to send to
Friends for comparison with Tennyson ! ! Audacity! " In
1874 he writes, " A Friend of mine, Harris of Hayne, told
me this Summer that Tennyson had said, speaking of my
* Quest,' ' Hawker has beaten me on my own ground.' " In
the same year he was pleased at being told that a passage
had been set at Rossall School for Greek Iambics,
In the letters that follow we can almost watch him at
work upon the poem, in the intervals of other events and
occupations.
Some of the letters do not refer to the ' Quest,' but, as
they w^ere written during the time he was engaged on it,
I have thought it best to place them in this chapter.
THE ARCHEOLOGY OF JOB 419
On 10 June 1863 he writes to Mr. Godwin : —
. . . "I want help about the Sangraal and I cannot
even fix the orthography of the name. Is there any
Book known or discoverable wherein the archaeology of
the legend is to be attained ? Any Encyclopaedia of
Sacred Antiquity ? I cannot decipher your French
Friend's reprint — I mean I cannot read it into modern
French. Nor have I access to a single book. The old
Rabbinical Comments on the Book of Job would be valu-
able to me. Have you St. Gregory (M) on Job in a
single volume — or one of a collection of his works with
that in it? Mignet's Edition ? The Archaeology of Job
is magnificent. If the Remarks or Comments of St.
Gregory Major on Job can be had in one vol. in Latin I
should like to see it. Do you see Ojice a Week ?
Maskell has inserted two of my Ballads lately in it, one
illustrated by Watson. ... I should like the Work on the
Pyramid. I think I have read it, as I do all about Egypt.
I should have written to you before but I only began to
read again and write yesterday."
To Dean Cowie.
"June XX., 1863.
••My Dear Cowie,
"As an old Oxford Man it interests me to read all
the Reports of Colleges and Schools and their Doings. In
a report in yesterday's Times of the opposition day at St.
Paul's the familiar name of * Mr. Cowie ' greeted me as
bracketed in i)iy chief test, Latin Verse, with Black, the
actual Captain of the School, atho' the said Cowie must be
in years and standing very junior. If, as I augur, this signi-
fies your Son, you have reason to be very proud of liim, for
I am, altho' only his Cornish Cousin. Give m\- kindest
regards to }'our boy and tell him if he Hkes to abjure his
420 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
Father's house he shall come to mine — ' No heir of mine
succeeding.' Tell him that like all Egotists I like to be put
in mind of myself, and when I see a lad urging beyond his
mates I say with the German — ' He stood before me like my
youth, Clothing the palpable and the Familiar with golden
exhalations of the dawn.' I have taken your advice, chosen
a difficult theme and I am at work on it — here it is — The
Quest of the Sangraal. Thus it begins — in blank verse —
" Ho ! for the Sangraal ! vanished Vase of Heaven,
That held, like Christ's own heart, an Hin of Blood.'
My best regards to your Wife and and all the Candidates
for the honours of the xixth Age."
Hawker's friend of undergraduate days, Mr. Arthur
Kelly, stood to him in the relation of candid critic, and
read the poem in manuscript. " I send passages to
Kelly," writes Hawker to Mr. Godwin, " partly because
his forte is criticism, and because he is a kind of concor-
dance of modern poetry, so that if I approach plagiarism
I am pretty sure he will detect it."
To J. G. Godwin, Esq.
"June 28, 1863.
" I have written, just as Tennyson ^ told me he always
did, a few lines every day, altering and expunging as he went
on, and 1 have finished nearly an hundred lines. I am very
thankful to you for St. Gregory. But the Translation I
think will suffice. I have had Warton's Vol. from London
with the Note on Sangraal, and I am glad to find that my
orthography is sustained by Nares. By the way what an
excellent Book that Glossary is. I should very much like
the whole. The loose discarded Sheets of a spoilt copy
would amply satisfy me. Villemarque came to-night.
' See Notes on page 152.
A TRYST AT CLOVELLY 421
Thank you for your Oxford fragments of Commemoration
— Mediocria firma — which I once translated ' Mediocrity
sticks fast' When I see you I shall have a great deal to
say. A Bed and I need not add a hearty welcome await
you here in my cell."
To the same.
" 1863. Morwenstow. July xiijth.
" As you will soon be in Rob Roy's country I must issue
my commands. No one may refuse me homage on the
Tamar Side. As soon as you can prophesy your movements
let me know — And as you will come to this Place from
Barnstaple on the north I fix on Clovelly for our Tryst.
Fix the day and hour that you will be there and I shall be
punctually there to bring you on hither. This, as the
Chinese say, is final. This do and I think I can obtain the
Stratton ' Records ' ^ at about half your offer. I always
thought I had sent you the First Cluster of the Reeds, but
as I did not I can obtain for you a copy, tarnished but by
myself if that will do. I transmit this avant courier to
await you when you arrive. I have written nearly 150 lines
of the Sangraal, and if you care to listen, I will read it to
you.
"Your Sheets are aired already."
To his Niece.
"August 2, 1863.
" My Dear Mary,
"Just home from Stow where I have driven a young
Barrister, Mr. Lovell Lovell, Son of the Town Clerk of Wells.
Me came yesterday bringing a noble altar Cloth worked by
his Mother & Miss Drake of Huntsham according to a
promise made two years ago when they were here. It covers
' ' Records of the Western Shore,' Second Series, published at Stratton, 1836.
422 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
the Altar and comes down nine inches all round; the Border
is a purple wine Colour and the pattern large Fleurs de lis
in Gold coloured Worsted, very thick, heavy, and sub-
stantial, just what I like, the top is a scarlet cloth. It looks
magnificent, and the Cocoa Fibre Matting for the whole
Chancel is sent for at Lord Clinton's expense. Then the
Chancel will look well.
" Last week Mr. Godwin came & stayed three days. He
arranged for the publication of the Sangraal. Maskell and
Dr. Meynell from Oscott are coming this week."
To Dean Cowie.
" August viij., 1862.
" My Dear Cowie,
" I ought to have remembered that a London
Dignitary demands Form and embassy and august cere-
monial and therefore I should have issued Letters invitat-
ory to assure you how that I earnestly entreated you to
visit Morwenstow and its cell. But if I write as long a
letter as St. Paul I can say no more than that few things
would give me greater pleasure than to hold converse with
you while the Bairns enjoy the Cliffs and Sea. Will you
then write me a line and fix on what day next week you and
Mrs. Cowie and all your ' hostages ' will come up. They
shall have their junket and you the ' Sangraal.' "
To J. G. Godwin, Esq.
"1863. Mvvw. Aug. xiij.
" My Dear Sir,
" Where are you ? I am quite put out at not
hearing from you. 'The Quest' is advanced to 307 lines —
and must now wind up. If you concur, a Fly leaf with
THE EARL OF CARLISLE'S SKETCH 423
'The Quest' &c. In five chants, by R. S. H. Chant the
First 2/6. Will this do ?
..." I should like to choose my type, margin and
paper. Where should the notes come ? . . . All who have
seen it say they like it exceedingly. But this may be
Bosh. I pray you write me as soon as you arrive in
Oxford. I have enumerated the Regions thrice over with
varied imagery, to imprint that Doctrine on the reader's
mind. In poetry, as in Prose, me judice, only that which
is true is beautiful. . . . Can you send me from St. Gregory's
Job his comment on the Cock in Job Ch. 38, verse 36 ?
\sic\. I want the myth there, for there is one. I
introduce
" ' The Bird of Judgment chants the doom of day ! '
as a line. But I have written lines every day since you
went away. I am at the Hut at six every evening, and I
remain till after sunset. When I left you I drove down
to Clovelly and while the Horses fed I walked down
to the Pier. A young Man spoke to me. I saw he was
an Undergraduate somewhere. Accordingly a week after
Thynne drove over with a friend of his. It was the same
man — George Howard ^ of Trin : Coll : Camb. Thynne
introduced him as a remarkable Artist in Drawing. We
went to the Hut. I asked to see his Sketch Book and
found that his forte lay in Faces and Figures. All the
Fanes were there, Thynne, and, in Wide Hat and Jersey,
myself — from memory — a merry likeness but not a cari-
cature.^ He hoped I was not angry — certainly not — but
he must give me a copy — this he promised — if he does I
will send it on to you. I saw him at the same work in the
Hut. Among my notes to the Graal it will be necessary
' Now Earl of Carlisle.
* This forms the frontispiece of the present volume. See preface, p. xiv.
424 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
that I should print ' Aishah Shechinah,' ' The Comet ' and
perhaps ' King Arthur's Waes Hael' This at all events
will swell the Book. They will be illustrative of the text
of the Poem."
Just at this time his work on the ' Quest ' was rudely
interrupted, as the following letter relates : —
"Aug. 23, 1863.
" My Dear Mrs. Watson,
"You bid me soothe and cheer you with my
reply, but alas you know not what you enjoin. In the
midst of this most miserable world who can forecast to-
morrow ? Another disaster which might have been
destruction has darkened this fatal 1863. I have had a
mournful menace of my house destroyed by Fire. But
for God's especial mercy it must have ensued. But
before I go on let me assure you that, altho' the Fright
has been fearful, the actual loss has not been large. It
was on Monday while I w^as seated at my table reading,
that the Servant rushed into the room pale and trembling
and saying ' O, Sir, the house is on Fire.' A Man at
work in a field opposite had seen smoke issuing from the
Gable towards the Sea. I rushed up to the turret stairs
and saw fire. I ran down and out towards the barley
field where the men were mowing. They ran in. Cann
came. The neighbours rushed in. They mounted the
roof and then it flashed into my mind that there was
hardly any water. The Well from long Summer was low.
So I grew faint and fell. No one perceived it and I came
to myself. But it so chanced that a fortnight ago I had
caused a pond to be made for m}' brood of ducks and
there we had found a spring. I called out ' To the pond ! '
There they found water. Still this would not have
availed. But Kinsman the Parish Mason, who had been
FIRE AT THE VICARAGE 425
conversant with Fires, mounted the roof and called for a
Sledge Hammer and saw. With these he broke down
about three feet of the roof behind the fire and cut
away the timber and very soon that faithful fellow
Cann came down from the roof and ran to me. I
was on my knees imploring God to spare her Roof so
long — and he shouted, ' They have conquered the fire,
Sir.' And so by God's express miracle they had. The
Wind was blowing from the Sea — and the pond although
gushing was small. But the fire was then overcome. What
a scene ! The poor Servants had called on the people to
save the Furniture and every thing in the house had been
carried out on the lawn. Anything more noble than the
conduct of the people was never seen. They risked life
and limb and the Dissenters were conspicuous among them
all for vigour and zeal. What a blessing that I was insured.
" My hand trembles as you may perceive but when I
can get some sleep all will come back I trust. One good
thing I must announce. My Wheat is saved. Cann
came with his men and before he touched a sickle or a
scythe he had reaped and bound set up and carried in every
sheaf of my Wheat. I don't think there ever was a Man
so true and sincere. He has grown up under my especial
care, he and his family, and I never knew or heard of so
blameless a man. But after their conduct on Monday I
must never doubt the goodwill of my whole people. Their
conduct was beyond all praise. I shall never forget it or
cease to be grateful for it as long as I live. The delicacy
too with which when the fire was stopped they went awa\-,
as if not to intrude even for j)raise, was very striking.
"And now I must close this prophet's roll written within
and without with lamentation and woe. Once more God
bless )-ou. He who has been so merciful to me will nc\cr
fail you — trust him,"
426 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
To Mrs. Watson.
"Sept. 6, 1863.
"We saved the Barley on Tuesday in an interval of
about Six hours of Sunshine. Here my churchwarden
again acted most kindly. Altho' he had Barley himself in
the ground and oats, he postponed his own corn which he
has not yet saved and brought his Men Waggon and horses
and made mine secure by nightfall. It really grieves me
to know that he suffers from his great kindness. But he
altho' of low degree was born with the feelings and the
demeanor of a gentleman and he avoids ever referring to
his corn in my presence. He saved his Wheat well and
he is the only Farmer in the Parish who has done so. Ours
is a late and slow people and their seedtime is often tardy,
therefore their harvest is likewise."
Describing the fire to his brother-in-law% he writes : —
" Hardly a china tea cup was broken yet all my trinkets
and curious things were out on the grass. The reports
were fearful, the house burnt down — with all its contents.
Maskell came up to offer me shelter, and all the people
around have shewn entire sympathy. I did not write. I
have not been able to sit down in quiet since. I am far
more shaken than you would imagine from having to gather
together papers and scattered things that I had not had
the courage to look at since February- — You will be surprised
to hear that I am a lean thin worn old man— I have lost
all my girth and my clothes have been taken in 3 or
4 times and still too large. I am not stouter than I was
at 21."
The following letter to Mrs. Watson illustrates the
complexity of Hawker's nature, the nervousness and
sensitive need of S}-mpathy suddenly changing to a mood
of stern invective : —
SELF-REVELATION 427
"Aug: 30, 1863.
" I know so well your keen and sensitive sympathy with
others and I feel so deeply your own misery that I suppress
many an utterance that I should otherwise allow to escape
my pen. I do not think I am a selfish man but my
nature is to lean and not to sustain others as I ought. I
do so yearn also for sympathy that the tenderness I have
lost cuts me down to the very earth. Bitterly and wither-
ingly I now feel that I am very nearly alone upon Earth.
"But I must reply to your queries and forget."
{^Re Mrs. Watson's landlady.]
" I can really hardly bear any more than yourself to write
that miserable Woman's name. I guessed rightly that she
had received obligations from you long ago and hers being
a very base nature ingratitude was the probable fruit. I
cannot think your just and righteous indignation can be
any impediment of a sacramental kind. It is written in
the Book of God 'Thou shalt despise the vile' — And so
long as she is impenitent towards you so long you are not
bound to forgive her."
"When base natures have received kindness it turns to
poison. The Man who could so express himself to defence-
less ladies as this man has to you must be an unmitigated
miscreant. I thank God that your last letter to me has
been addressed from such a den of thieves . . . Your's
only arrived by to-night's Post and its contents have made
me so indignant that I shall not sleep much to-night. If
I dream it will be that I am horsewhipping Mr. P. God
bless you and yours and bring you safe to }-our new abode."
To J. G. Godwin, Esq.
"Septr. 5/63.
" I cannot give you the contents of the other cnvclo[)c.
It is the onl\- outline ever taken, the only one that ever
428 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
will be attempted of my worn-out face. If you like to
have it copied you may do so, and the original, for so it is
hterally, must recur to me. The artist is Mr. George
Howard, the Heir presumptive, if the Earl has no future
children, of Lord Carlisle, Viceroy of Ireland.
..." To my great surprise St. Gregory does not
deliver a mythic meaning of the Cock. There is, I am
persuaded, a deep and secret doctrine in that cockcrow
which rebuked the Rocky Apostle. Morris gives from
the Morning Thanksgiving of the Jewish Prayer Book —
' Blessed be thou O Lord my God Thou ruler of Eternity
Thou who hast granted to the Cock the Skill to test twixt
day and night.' I have called the Cock at Dundagel thus : —
"'The Bird of Judgment chants the doom of Night!'
and I wanted a Note. But never mind : I don't want to
show off or to seem to do so if I can help it.
"But with regard to the Type. It seems to me so far
to go to Scotland to invest ;^20 or ^^30. A homely
Printer on ever so coarse a paper so that the type is
distinct and manly would surely do as well — your friend
Mr. Pollard as well as any. I have heard of him as a good
Churchman and only last week I sent Mr. Thynne to him
for Books for the School. But I will be guided by you —
as soon as I see my way. I am arrived at line 347. The
King is bidding them Farewell under Carradon on the
Moor amid Rock and Barrow &c. and I shall not carry it
much farther if at all. Surely the price cannot exceed 26.
Now 100 at 2/6 =£"12-10-0. 200 would pay for Printing,
and 300 I suppose will cover all cost. It would be most
stony if I could not win 300 friends at 2 6 each. As
John Milton said ' Fit audience find the few.' So say I.
I do not covet the slime of the Fccces Anglice on the page.
" A Voice seems always in my Ear ' Too late, Too late.' "
''^^--..
K. S. 11 \\\ Kl K.
.i.,-t-i, hv lib- r:.ri .-r r.rii.
SELF-CRITICISM 429
To J. G. Godwin, Esq.
"Sept. viij., 1863.
"Again I thank you for useful aid. Lyra's Gloss puts
the inspiration of the Cock just as I suspected from guess
in the myth of St Peter's denial. Said Lord Jesu in his
Soul ' Think not your inspiration will save you from error
or render you faithful. Lo ! the Bird of Night inspired by
me to adjudge between the darkness and the dawn shall
put you to rebuke and shame. He will be true to his
Paraclete and thou false to thine — A living Dial of God
that girded fowl — a breathing Oracle of Day,
..." You mention Jacobson, Did you speak of the
Sangraal to him ? Any little word of encouragement from
any source would be of real value to me — here alone —
like the King ' Around his Soul Dundagel and the Sea ! '
I have got in some strong bits on the Barrows The
Pillared Rocks and craggy Carradon, There will be I
think a great deal of what Maskell calls meat in my
Sangraal— even the First Chant — (you write Chaunt but
surely ' u ' cannot travel in from the etymon). These
doubts make me wish for an old Nares.
. , . "If we could afford it I should like an outline of the
nearest guess to the Sangraal on the cover. It would
foretell the nature of the theme. Yet not unless it were
near the truth, and nothing will yield any approach, me
judice, to this, but some hint from the Catacomb-frescoes
— Did you ever sec the Giant Folio, 75 Guineas, from
Rome? Only Three came to England; one Brit:
Museum."
To the same.
" Septr. xij., 1863.
"Your letters are the only cheering MSS. I get. I fear
my failure will again be in LSD. ... I fear w^hcn it comes
to half-crowns the Thanes will fly from me.
430 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
... "I don't much care about the shape &c. for this
First Chant, because we shall not come in contact yet with
the cup itself. Still it is full of interest. As you suppose
Mr. Shipley has written to me and sent me a copy of his
recent issue beautifully got up, and his contents are more
fearless than is usual nowadays. He asks for pieces of
mine to publish — I think you have all and I none. Have
you a Xmas Ballad printed in Ns and Qs some time back
about the Southern Cross and the Magi. This might suit
him. Anything you have Mr. Shipley may print. He
gives his name at your request for my Sangraal.
" I have got to line 385 and now a few more will close it.
... "I have harassing weather for out of door, still
every Evening you may conceive me from Six till dark at
the hut looking over the Sea and, save for the two dogs,
alone. They never leave me night or day. Charlie sleeps
at my Bedside vigilant as Cerberus.
... "I fear I am a great tax on your time, but I do feel
so utterly crushed sometimes here in my utter loneliness
that it is a relief to me to sit down and talk to you with
my nervous pen. You may always tell my frame of mind
by my hand-writing. Shamefully reckless to-night."
To J, G. Godwin, Esq.
" Septr. xiij., 1863.
..." I never fancy that I personally understand or
enjoy a finical or huddled type as I do a bold clear manly
letter. Do you know a Book, published by the Cardinal
of England for a Charity, called ' A Few Flowers from a
Roman Campagna ' ? I like the type of the prose and
the poetry very much. On second thoughts I will send it
to you (a gift) that you may see my taste. I should like
the type of his Prose for my Verses. It was a little wetted
DISTINGUISHED VISITORS 431
during the fire — you will know the name of the type — I
do not. Just in from the hut — a noble set of Sun on the
Sea — Rather worn too am I — Three Sermons never con-
ceived till I am in Church is exhaustive for the nervous or
fibrous tissue. To-day the Gospel of the Birds and the
flowers. Our Lord on Mount Thabor with the fed
multitudes grouped in the distance, the Syrian Farmers at
the Foot of the Hill — Clusters of flowers between the
Rocks, Birds gliding to and fro, So he called on the
people to choose their World, which of the twain, &c."
To Dean Cowie.
" Septr. 22, 1863.
..." I have had queer visits, Your member for Cam-
bridge, Walpole, bringing Lord Justice Turner and his
Three Daughters, one of whom by her Father's command is
to send me a drawing she made, which reminds me that I
have not asked who wrote those pretty earnest lines you en-
closed. I was very glad to receive them (tell her so) and
nothing but a fire could have made me omit to write and say
so at the time. When you read the ' Sangraal ' and come to
the lines ' I have no Son — no daughter of my loins ' ' To
breathe 'mid future men their Father's name : ' ' My blood
will perish when these veins are dry : ' it was your
Children's faces that were in my mind as I wrote. Mind
that and tell them so. I am going to print the Poem at my
own expense and sell it myself — I and Godwin of Oxford.
I have been so robbed by the miscreant Booksellers that if
I lose they shall not win."
It is said that when the distinguished visit(^rs men-
tioned in this letter arrived at the Vicarage, Hawker was
upstairs, and kept them waiting some little time before
he made his appearance. Apparcntl}' his guests had
shown some signs of impatience, for Hawker, when he
432 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
came down, apologised and said, laughingly, " If the Lord
Chancellor had called, you know, I could not have ap-
peared while I was shaving." The Rt. Hon. Spencer
Horatio Walpole was afterwards Home Secretary at the
time of the Hyde Park riots of 1866. He is said to have
shed tears when a certain deputation waited upon him.
On hearing of this Hawker remarked, "A very good
father, no doubt, but not much of a statesman."
To y. G, Godwin, Esq.
"Sept. 25, 1863.
..." I don't want a larger page if the type be ever so
large. Still less do I want any ornament of type or any
other kind. It cannot be too simple so that it be legible
and plain. It always struck me that the ' Idylls ' were
printed in a most unsuitable way for the theme. The
small neat finedrawn letters do not cohere with a medi-
aeval Subject or antique theme. I send you also Pollard's
letter about the toned paper. His scale of charges to me
seems miraculously subdued. There seems no bias to
imposition or to overpay. I don't think I shall add any
more to Chant the First. I had intended to close with a
vision shewn to Merlin and the King on Dundagel battle-
ments, but I fear it will take more time than I can now
bestow."
"Septr. 27, 1863.
" j\lY Dear ]\Irs. Watson,
"Your own cheerfulness amid so many anxieties
is indeed a lesson to me to subdue my morbid tendencies,
but }'0U are a Woman and I am a ]\Ian, and it is God's
wise and gracious law that your Sex shall have power to
control your own sorrov/s in order to soothe ours. How
often do I remark this in lowl}- life and among my own
HAWKER QUOTES SCOTT 433
parishioners. The Sick bed of the man is querulous and
impatient and very often selfish towards the Wife and
daughter, while a woman is always ready to subdue her
pain and to make the best of her ailments lest they
should harass the man. Never were there truer lines than
those of Scott —
" ' When pain and sickness rend the brow,
A ministering angel thou.'
... " I do not think I know Dr. James even by name,
but this goes for nothing now for I literally read no
modern book at all. If you could see my little room !
just large enough to hold a kind of oblong couch like a
sofa-bed, a table, and my chair. Over against me are ten
or twelve folio volumes — Calmet's Dictionary of the l^ible
and St. Thomas his Summary of Theology — a Latin Bible
and Concordance — an ancient History of the Church and
two or three more Books — and there you have my library
— my Study and my bed — the world that I inhabit —
where I shall live and die — from my Window the Church
and the Sea.
To J. G. Godwin, Esq.
"Septr. 28, 1863.
"Mv Dear Sir,
"The inroads which I make on your time and
patience will cease in all likelihood at the Collation of the
New Incumbent of Morwenstow. There will be no heir of
mine succeeding to your correspondence. As I have said
in the 'Quest' in one of the Speeches of the King 'My
blood will perish when these veins arc dry.' This thought
often arrives to me in my dreary life, l^ut to your letter. . . .
It will not do to defer the minor poems to the end of all —
Because each of them is in the nature of a note in itself
2 p:
434 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
e.g., 'Aishah' illustrates the usage of that word as an
exclamation instead of Arthur's favourite word ' Marie.'
The line about the feast
" ' Hear how the Minstrels prophesy in Sound,
Shout the King's Waze-hael and Drink-hael the Queen I '
introduces naturally ' King Arthur's Waze-hael,' my ballad.
Not one, I think, will take a place unconnected with the
Poem. I wish them not to be utterly lost after I am
gone.
..." I inclose one or two cuttings that I found in sorting
papers, one of my sad and frequent occupations now, also
a Note ^ from Emily Tennyson the Poet's Wife, which I
would not burn. You will be glad to hear that the repairs
of my Fire are nearly completed and are to be paid for by
the Insurance Co. No one will pay me for the heart-
beat which has continued I am sorry to say ever since.
Vascular disease my only inheritance from my poor dear
Father.
. , . "Will you look out in Nares ' aumry ' — or
'aumbry:' it is the breviate of Almeries for Aumoire (I
think) and meant originally what we call Alms-chest or
perhaps Archive, or vulgo Cupboard. I want the etymon
and accurate reading of the word as I use it of Merlin's SS.
" 'on the Runic hide
Of a slain deer, roll'd in an aumry chest.' "
Could you at my cost get me a copy of my own Face ?
Here I am helpless and I am asked. But tell me first."
To J. G. Godwin, Esq.
"Sept. 30, 1863.
"A letter from your Father and two vols, of De Foe.
De Foe a Failure — most meagre and vapid in his reference
' This is the letter given on page 197,
A BLESSING OR 435
to this country. How miserably a quotation in a Magazine
misled me. Bolton Corney at all events is sincere. He
has sent me the whole of Michel's Preface copied out in
his own hand ! I must relinquish my search for the Shape
and Material of the early Cups till I write my Second
Chant."
"Octr. 2 /63.
. . . "A letter from Sir T. D. Acland who is at Bude to
announce a visit here and to ask leave to bring Cousins
the Engraver with him. I am expecting every day the
arrival of my new Parishioner Mr. Valentine, Vicar of
Whixley, Yorkshire, who has bought a Farm and House
of Semi-annual Abode. He may be a blessing or .
At the hut to-night — A man obliged to go with me to hold
by, the Storm was so fierce and strong and noble — the
cruel Sea ! "
To Mrs. Watson.
"nth Octr. 1863.
..." I fear the sands you speak of are quicksands. If
so pray adopt a circuitous route rather than cross them. I
once saw Lady Acland driving her ponies over the sands
at Bude where it used to be firm land, and the wheels
sank to the axle and the ponies to their bellies. Had it
not been for a carter she would have met with a fearful
accident."
To J. G. Godwin^ Esq.
"Octr. 24, 1863.
" My Dear Sir,
" Never suppose that when I fail to write you
the cause is any cessation of regard, but the truth is, I am
and have been for some time exceedingly dei)resscd and
cast down. Nothing of strange import has occurred but
436 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
only an aggravation of former griefs. This fatal 63 is
slaying me. Nothing prospers — my poor animals languish
and die, and all were her pets. And now I cannot shelter
myself in the hut Evenings, for my dog Charlie (Berg's
son) has taken to worry sheep and has nearly killed two of
my own. He was the only companion left to me — when
quite a puppy he came to the Bedside and was greeted by
one of the last smiles — And now when I moan in my bed
he comes and searches my face and puts his arms round
me as if to soothe me. . . . The family of new Par-
ishioners (did I tell you ?) Valentine ? who has bought
lands here, are come to reside — Vicar of Whixley, York-
shire. He is regular at Church — a simple-minded Man,
as you will see when I tell you that he thinks it a treat !
to hear me preach ! Thank God I never was a popular
preacher and never shall be. ... I have written two
Visions called up by Merlin, and the other I really cannot
drag out of my Brain. However the Poem will end well
enough without them.
. . . "Great illness here. ... I go from Bed to Bed to
comfort, wanting it myself most of all. I cannot summon
one soothing thought."
To Dean Cowie.
" Octr. 29, 1863.
"My Dear Cowie,
" I know too well the absorbing pressure on your
time to look for a reply from you to all my letters — only let me
say how glad I always am to see the exactitude of your Senior
Wrangler Handwriting. I have gratefully used your Astro-
nomical tidings as you will discern in one of my learned notes.
..." When you can, tell me something about the events
of the world I shall never see. I have have had the usual
fiittings hither of the Bude Swallows and now my lonely
DEATH OF MRS. PHILLPOTTS 437
Winter is setting in. I never saw the Wrath of the Atlantic
fiercer than it is now."
To J. G. Godwin^ Esq.
"Octr. 29, 1863.
"The Leopard was the Norman Beast in the Con-
queror's Shield. May I say Libbard? Will you look in
a Glossary and let me know ? I want to use it to mark
the Norman period of History. You say ' don't despond '
— why ! the weight of a ton of Lead is dragging at my
Ganglions while I write. I do so dread the Morrow. But
I will not say more to worry you.
" I hope you described Morwenstow and the Vicar to
Mrs. Jacobson. She once took kind interest in me. Pray
tell me if anything passed."
"Novr. I, 1863.
" My Dear Mrs. Watson,
" Since I wrote last the Bishop has lost his faith-
ful Wife, I may say his vigilant guardian. She never
allowed him out of her sight. She told me herself that
she always went with him to the House of Lords and sat
in the Ladies Seats until the House adjourned, no matter
what hour. She never to the last would let him travel
without herself and she must have endured tortures to
accomplish it. . . . How dearly he has paid for his career.
And now what is it? His Soul must arise and go when-
soever God sends his Angel to require it, and when that
Soul stands before God it will wear no robe nor mitre nor
carry a crosier there in that awful Presence wherein we all
must stand. y\nd then — what will avail us then ? One cup
of cold Water which we have given to a thirsty Brother for
Christ's sake will outweigh a diadem. What are we in the
hands of God ? — dust and ashes.
"Our Storms are fearful. I have been watching two
days yesterday and to-day a Schooner in distress and the
438 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
Cliffs lined with Men. God grant no wrecks. On Friday
the Hail beat on our Glass as large as marbles — and
cracked the Glass. The Tillage of Wheat has been at a
pause for full Ten days. It is indeed a fearful Coast. Let
that comfort you in your inland home. In every Spot there
are compensating events. I have learnt the lesson of life
and found that having food and health and raiment every
one ought to be content. No one is able to be ever so high
to enjoy more than those three elements of human comfort.
... I have visited every day a dying old man at our
Almshouse, 72, worn out with hard work and disease. I
administered the Sacrament on Friday and that Night he
slept the first time for a whole week and awoke prostrate
but resigned. I have often seen that result of our Blessed
Saviour's Sign.
" I read with much pleasure your contented account of
your new home. Depend on it the Mind or rather the
Soul creates its own scene around the body. What we
think, we are, and it is our thoughts that make a Palace
of a cot with a meek and gentle mind. You say your
Neighbours are lowly. So much the better. I have
found that the English Virtues like a sheltered spot and
an humble home. If I were to travel I should always
choose a third Class Carriage. They say that in the
Second Class there is always a doubtful sort of gentility
whereas in the third there are people lowly but honest. So
is it in life."
From Dr. Phillpotts to Rev. R. S. Hawker, m reply to a letter
of co7idolence on the death of Airs. Phillpotts.
" Bishopstowe. 29 0ctr. 1863.
"My Dear Sir,
" I heartily thank you — and know that you would
not wish me to write more than this, for my bodily as well
LETTER FROM BISHOP PHILLPOTTS 439
as mental disability imposes restraint on my usage of the
pen,
" I wish your sympathy were not the reopening of your
own sorrows. But the indulgence of these sorrows is I
feel an enjoyment. Be moderate in that indulgence.
" Yrs. very faithfully,
" Hy, Exeter,"
To J. G. Godivin^ Esq.
"Novr. iij, 1863,
"My Dear Sir,
" I finished to-day The First Chant and stopped
at the 470th line, , . . If I had any Great Friend
to offer it to, I would have a vellum copy also, but
I have not one, , , , I am still a Prisoner in my
Couch Room for poor dear Charlie's sake. I had a
muzzle made for him but as soon as I put it on he comes
and places his head on my knee and nothing will make
him move away. The valves of my heart terrify me
night and day, A thought of terror will pass into the
central ganglions of my breast like a stab of Steel, We
have had a fearful Storm and a Vessel off Ilennacliff on
PViday under bare poles for some hours, I was obliged to
go out held by a Man."
To the same,
"Xovr. 5, 1863.
... "I know the tax I levy on j-our patience and time,
but when you sit down to write, realize my position, alone
nearly all day except when I go out for duty and alone
all Night in this small room not much bigger than my
grave,
, . , "The more I think about it the more assured I am
that my Chant will contain mure ' meat ' than an)- thing
440 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
printed for loo years, but that it will not be appreciated
until Centuries after I am dead. I have given the Record
and the Rationale of Keltic Cornwall, The Rock, Barrow,
Moor, Mountain, all there, with the Spirit of our Fathers
rehearsing their intent.
... "I think to ask Mozley, who drank tea here in the
Summer, to notice it in the Times. Did I tell you that
the only satisfactory account af the Chalice in which our
B. L. communicated his apostles is in the trances of Sister
Emmerich, an extatic in Belgium ?
" Memoranda.
" Mozley saw Dundagel and was amazingly struck with
it. He speaks very strongly of his impressions of Mor-
wenstow — altogether the Spirit in which he writes is most
fortunate if he should write a critique on it in the Times.
" Wellcombe.
"As I entered the Gulph between the Vallies to-day, a
Storm leaped from the Sea and rushed at me roaring — I
recognised a Demon and put Carrow into a gallop and so
escaped. But it was perilous work. There once I saw a
Brownie ; ^ and Thence at Night the Northern Glances
Gleam.
" Good Night."
To J. G. Godwin, Esq.
"Novr. 7, 1863.
" Another letter from Thoms sending stamps and
saying that for Auld Lang Syne's sake he had inserted an
Advertisement of the 'Quest' in this day's N. & Q.
" Xovr. xiij., 1863.
..." I have ordered a vellum copy for Mrs. Guelph
- See page 100,
ENGLAND'S DOOM 441
and I shall be glad if you will find out the proper officer
through whom to write to her. Perhaps Jacobson may-
know, or Dr. Liddell.
. , . "I think Chant the Second must be Lancelot's
Failure in the North."
The following letter to Mrs. Watson, dated Nov. 8,
1863, contains the same thought as the final apostrophe
of England in the ' Quest ' : —
" Like a gleam of light in a dark day is a pleasant
letter amid my daily gloom. But the Weather here is
indeed terrific. Three days during last week it was so
dark that one or two farmers came to ask if I could tell
the reason of such unnatural darkness. It was like a pall.
And most strange to record throughout the whole Three
days the Weatherglass in my hall went up without pause
until it stood at set Fair. I was really and actually
terrified. Mine is a very oldfashioned perpendicular
Barometer: it has been in the family 80 years and never
before did it fail to rise or fall as the Weather became fair
or foul. And now all the while that it so went up, the
Rain fell. Storm raged and lightning now and then. It
is still a mystery to me. I should tell you that so accurate
has it always been, that Farmers have come and sent for
miles to inquire in doubtful weather how the Parson's
Glass stood. It is as I suppose among the mysteries of
the air.
" I have been compelled to solve that and other wonders
of the Weather, by my real opinion that God is angry
with this land. And so I think and fear. In all that is
called material success England prospers — in Wealth, in
Arts and Arms — but that is of the Earth and Earthly.
Demons may be the Authors of that. For did not the Great
enemy say to our Lord Himself when he shewed him all
the Kingdoms of the Earth 'All these,' said he, 'will I
442 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
give thee for they are mine and to whomsoever I will I
give them.' There is not in the Bible a more fearful text.
To think that Earthly Success, Earthly grandeur may be
the direct gift of the Demon. Coupled with this thought
is the state of the Weather. We know from Scriptures
also that this great Foe is the Prince of the Powers of the
Air. He is of course under control and can only go to
the length of his limit, but these Storms this Gloom may
be the delighted work of our Great Enemy revelling in
Acts of Judgment which he is allowed to perform as the
Instrument of Doom. This is the thought that makes
Storm and Tempest too fearful to a thoughtful Mind. Out
of Evil God will eventually bring Good. But meanwhile
Evil and the Powers of Evil may work great mischief to a
sinful land."
The following letter from Dr. Grant, Roman Catholic
Bishop of Southwark, makes a clever appeal to Hawker's
tastes and sympathies, his love of the miraculous, his de-
votion to "The Maiden Mother undefiled," his care for the
shipwrecked sailor. What effect the appeal had upon him
at this time there is nothing to show, but at any rate one
may infer that he had not responded to Dr. Grant's previ-
ous overture [Page 379] : —
"St. George's. Nov. 9, 1863.
" Dear Mr. Hawker,
"Your kind letter of the vi. has come to hand
to-day, dilata quidcr,i sed pergrata. I shall be very glad
to see your verses the ' Quest of the Sangraal.' I suppose
you know that part of the Table of the Last Supper is in
St. John Lateran's. The silver nails of the silver plates,
that once covered it, are still there.
" How earnestly I pray that you may be consoled in
your sorrow for the departed, of whose death I lately
ANOTHER OVERTURE FROM ROME 443
heard, by coming to the one Fold under the Chief Pastor,
St. Peter's Successor. In that Fold alone will your love of
Mary Immaculate and Blessed, and your quest of the
Treasure that made the Sangraal holy be satisfied. Come,
come, sine mora, ut Ecclesia sit refugiuni naufrago.
" Yrs. vy. sincerely,
"t Thomas Grant."
To J, G. Godwin, Esq.
" Novr. xvj., 1863.
"A very kind letter from 'J. B. Edinburgh' to-night.
That invitation to Henley or Scotland which is to me such
mockery, just as if you asked a Cherub to sit down, he not
having the wherewithal to do so. Can you conceive a
Pole in Morwenstow Church, a Miss Lebjinckski or some
such name, Governess to my new Parishioners at Chapel
farm ? The Father's property all merged in the American
War — Children obliged to earn life and her first effort
along these rocks. Mr. Valentine (did I tell you his
name ?) brings the people, I see, to Church. Lord P's ^
affair is, I see, oozing out. My last page is sent off to
Pollard. I don't think the actual text will exceed 26 or
28 pages. The Appendices embrace verses and prose all
more or less illustrative of the Quest, e.g., ^Vishah naturally
introduces that Poem wherein I am said to have rehearsed
the Incarnation in a way not yet found in the language —
Dr. Grant I^ishop of Southwark and Dr. Ullathorne of
Birmingham will do justice to my ' Quest.'"
The " Miss Lebjinckski " mentioned in the above letter
was Miss Pauline Anne Kuczynski, whom the \'icar aiter-
wards married.
Strange how our future destiny may be shaping itself,
and the ties that will bind us to other lives graduall)- woven,
' Lord Piilmcrston.
444 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
while we are all unconscious of the process. Just a week
later Miss Kuczynski wrote to her uncle in London : —
"The Rector, Mr. Hawker, is a clever man but most
eccentric, and tip top high church. He is 65 and a
widower ! [ * 65 ' was a mistake. He was only 60.] . . .
Mr. Hawker has the most absurd delusions. . . I heard
him questioning the school-children yesterday. One
Question he asked was ' What is an Angel ? ' Answer ' A
Young Man.' ' Quite right,' said Mr. Hawker, ' and
remember, without wings. It is only foolish people who
think of angels with wings — wings would impede the
progress from heaven to earth, and they are always passing
to and fro.' He instills into the youthful mind of
Morwenstow the most absurd superstitions about Ghosts
and Brownies, which he believes actually exist."
A comparison of this with Mrs. Hawker's later letters is
an instructive commentary on the value of first impressions.
" Beginning with a little aversion," as becomes a young
woman, she was gradually drawn under the spell of his
personality, until her heart and mind were merged in his,
and whatsoever he thought and did became the law and
Gospel of her life.
On 30th Dec, 1863, she writes, "Christmas Eve Carol-
singers came round and Mr. V. the children and I took
tea at the Vicar's, where the Carol-singers had a kind
of tea and supper. Mr. Hawker our Vicar is slightly
cracked — but he's a very clever old soul."
On Jany. 4, 1864, " New Year's Day afternoon and
evening I spent with Mr. V. and the children at the Vicar's.
Mr. Hawker took me and the children to Jiis cliff — his
Glebe land lies on the Cliffs chiefly — a little way down one
called Vicarage Cliff he has made out of the hull of one of
the vessels wrecked on Morwenstow rocks a hut. There
we sat an hour as snug as possible, with the most splendid
MISS KUCZYNSKI 445
panorama of sky sea and rock before us and Mr. Hawker
telling me most interesting accounts of wrecks off this
immediate Coast — once he buried 9 poor sailors whose
corpses had been washed up on to the beach. He is a
most interesting old gentleman. Fortunately we get on
well — where he takes he's charming, where he does'nt he's
the other thing. He has lived a life made up of
eccentricities. When he was 19 he married a lady of 45.
She died last February aged nearly go"
On Jan. 14, 1864, " I'm reading such a capital novel by
Bayard Taylor — ' Hannah Thurston ' — Mr. Hawker has a
subscription at Mitchell's and I have the benefit of it."
Miss Kuczynski's letters of this time are those of a high-
spirited, warm-hearted girl, not yet taking life very
seriousl}'.
We must leave Hawker's own letters to tell the rest of
the story. For the present, however, it remains in the
background, and in his weekly letters to Mrs. Watson there
is little hint of the new influence at work in his life. His
next letter to her (reverting to the order broken by this
digression) is dated Nov 22, 1863 : —
" Mv Dear Mrs. Watson,
..." Your monotony of life is a counterpart of
mine. Day unto day uttereth the same speech, and night
unto night can but reiterate the self-same knowledge. To
be sure I have from my window the ever-striking scene of
the Sea, and what a storehouse of incident and imagery is
there. Wc have escaped actual Shipwreck throughout
these hurricanes and yet only just escaped. A Ship last
week was cast ashore only Six miles from my house, but
in the l^u-ish of Ilartland which flanks Wellcomlxj on the
North. There was a misty Night and this vessel headed
with Cop[)cr with 15 hands on Board was looking out for
446 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
Lundy Light and got inside that island instead of out : 5
of the Crew or rather of the people on Board were drowned
but 10 got ashore from the Ship. Two of the last were
children of the Captain who had his Wife and family on
board, and this is, so the Sailors say, always unlucky. The
anxiety for them often bewilders the judgment and per-
plexes the efforts of the Captain and Crew. Our Govern-
ment always blundering have issued orders to the Author-
ities of Lundy Island to fire a Cannon every five minutes
on a misty day but have not ordained it to be done by
Night when it is so much more required. These men say
that such a Signal would have shewn them their position
and might have saved their Ship."
To J. G. Godwin, Esq.
"Xovr. 25, 1863.
" My Work is over and I sit down in my quiet vault to
write to you. . . I hope you will like the Three Visions at
the Close called up by Merlin for the King, The First —
England under Arthur and His Wars, Second the Saxon
and Norman Times of Sangraal Light, Third from 1536 to
1863 with my notions of the Battle of W^aterloo and the
Armstrong Gun — Gas, Steam, Electric Telegraph. I am
anxious that you should read it in full and give me your
candid and first impression. / don't expect Success, much
less encouragement to go on. But I am glad I have written
it because it is Monumental Morwenstow throughout. I
have touched on every Cornish feature in existence, Our
Rock Altars, Barrows — Moors &c. But I will not worry
you. Pray write, for on your letters I lean."
" Novr. 29, 1863.
" My Dear Mrs. W^a.tson,
" How forcibly your letter recalls the verse with
which I precede the Funeral at the Grave * In the midst of
SUDDEN DEATH 447
Life we are in death : of whom may we seek for succour but
of thee O Lord ! ' Sometimes I think that sudden death
is a mercy and then again I recall the need of earthly and
spiritual preparation for that most awful end of all things.
The prayer we make in our Litany to be delivered from
sudden signifies unready death — death without the
Sacraments and the Services which the church supplies to
strengthen and sustain the solitary Soul. One thing is
sure that our Father is merciful to the latest breath, too
merciful to take us away unprepared when he perceives that
warning and time would make us ready. . . , My own
poor Father died suddenly. A bloodvessel burst in the
heart — a rush of Blood ensued and he was gone in a few
minutes — my mother in the room. When I look back on
that Scene in the Vicarage at Stratton it is really more than
I can bear. But after all what is my life, what is the life of
all on Earth but a remembrance of scenes of anguish pain
and death ? It was a true word that the aged Patriarch
said ' Few and evil have the days of the years of my life
been.'
" On Tuesday last I saw Mr. Valentine. While I was
at the School hearing the Children (I catechise them once
or twice a Week) they came in and stayed till I dismissed
the Class. Then I walked towards their Farm with them
and, remembering your injunction, I sounded him as to his
wishes about assisting in Service of the Church. I found
it was a strong desire of his to do so and I therefore asked
him to preach this morning's Sermon which he has done.
Like all deaf people his voice is loud and ratlicr harsh —
manner simple and unaffected. I should think low Church
certainly rather than high but without any strong bias so
far as I can judge who never hear otlicrs j)rcach. His
text 'The Harvest is past, The Summer is ended, aiv! \vc
are not saved.' It was known that he was going to [)reach
448 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
and this brought a larger congregation than usual — many
dissenters. Their children cannot say a word of the
catechism, whereas in the School I have children of 5 and
6 who can say it all. The young person ^ who has charge
of them is not very exalted I think in grade but then I
really know nothing about such things. They said it
seemed so odd to meet a person like myself who had
never but once seen a railroad and who had neither seen
nor wished to see a Great Exhibition. My doctrine that
such things were sinful they were thoroughly astonished
to hear, but they could not contradict the Scripture,
and when I proved from the Galatians 5th Chapter
and 20 and 21 verses that rivalry and competition
for prizes and envy one of another would keep
men out of the Kingdom of God they knew not what to
reply. They said ' all you say is true, but then how en-
tirely wrong all the world must be.' 'So said our Saviour,'
was my immediate reply."
To J. Somers James^ Esq.
"Dec. ij., 1863.
" Next week the book will be out and it will be the
longest thing I ever wrote. It is not the kind of work
you would expect. For example, I have pourtrayed the
comparative merits of the Whitworth and Armstrong guns
and said all that can be said of the proud position of
England under Lord Palmerton's ministry. I flatter my-
self that I have succeeded best in modern History."
To J. G. Godzvin, Esq.
" Deer. 2, 1863.
..." In the Visions I have referred to the Advance-
ment of Science in both the Universities and ascribed to
' His future wife.
HAWKER ON PUBLISHERS 449
every Professor his righteous due. This lengthens the
Poem but I could not resist my descriptive impulses and
so you will say. ... It seems that in the Dublin there
is a Critique on Tennyson, some kind of prophetic criticism
on any one who should write upon the Sangraal, and I
must be a bold man to adopt it in the teeth of such a
Critic. . . . With regard to LSD only one point with me.
I want to sell enough to pay Pollard's Bill. When that is
done I repose from my anxieties. I do not think it will
win upon the public. I fear that there will be a want of
relish for such a theme and that those who do like the
Subject would rather I had discussed the money value of
the Vase and its array of jewels and dealt with the Quest
as a lucky Speculation of Sir Galahad."
To the same.
"Dec. 17, 1863.
..." No, I have no friend connected with the Satur-
day Review, nor can I conceive any verses more unsavoury
to the tone of that publication than mine. However, if
you like you can resort to it for a ' file for the goads,' as
Samuel writes of the Philistines. I think you are wrong
about the latter part of the Poem. It is certainly the
best. No, I cannot begin for the first time in my life to
seek notoriety from the Serials or Papers. One line
describes my life. ' Remote, unfriended, solitary, slow.'
My talent, if I have one, has always been hidden in other
people's napkins, and I often compare myself to poor
Goldsmith, whom a Bookseller concealed in his Garret
while he sold off the produce of his Brains. So ]\I & Co.
have always kept me out of sight, profited by ray little
Books, and never dropped a Shilling in the dark for me to
pick up. . . .
2 F
450 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
..." Certainly the sooner I can the ' nummos con-
templor in Area ' the better for my sake and Pollard's."
To J. G. Godwin, Esq.
"Dec. 20, 1863.
. . . " Don't you suppress opinions about the ' Quest '
from notions of my taking offence. I assure you I do not
feel the slightest annoyance from an adverse criticism. I
know the points in it too well to mind any undeserved
rebuke, and the real faults when pointed out I will freely
acknowledge. You will oblige me and do me good by
telling me all and every thing said of the verses by any-
body. . . . O how I wish this fatal Season, this fearful
year were over. I sometimes think I must give up the
battle of life. My health is shuddery — nine-tenths mental
too. I never eat meat, for my appetite is utterly gone.
Eggs now and then, but chiefly bread and milk. Very few
could stand this vaulted life of mine. Don't complain.
Your ills must be small in comparison with my
Mountains."
To the Rev. W. West.
"Dec. 23, 1863.
" My Dear Sir,
... " I see by the last No. of N. &■ Qs. that
you have not deserted the former columns nor the Well-
known Signature. What a dearth of research there is
among the Writers on Antiquity there — e.g., Waeshael.
If you had come on hither I should have shown you a
'tawny Bowl,' date 1687, one year before the devolution
of the Church to State Purposes. The cover is rounded
and the Total Bowl not unlike what it was intended to
recall — the Bosom of the nursing Mother of Bethlehem.
On each side there is a nipple of the same ware through
A'.i:" !H till f'CSSC
1 III U \1,>-II Ml !■.' '\\ I
THE WAES-HAEL BOWL 451
which the Waeshaeler used to pass a Reed and thus Hter-
ally sucked the wine spiced, which was the Church emblem
of Blood. Milk is White Blood, as the Chinese call it.
This is the respectful mode of drinking from the same
origin of thought. The Pope draws the Wine from his
Chalice through a Nasus or Silver tube, and in the oldest
Chalices there are pipes descending within and projecting
above the rim and called ministerial for the use of the
Clergy."
To J. G. Godwin, Esq.
"Dec. 29, 1863.
"My Dear Sir,
..." King's letter is good.^ His connexion with the
Quarterly is a valuable opening. Meynell is the Professor
of Theology in St. Mary's College, Oscott, and a constant
writer in the Djiblin Quarterly and Rambler. I await
tidings from you of the reception and opinions of the
Great Babel.
. . . "Can you refer to Lyra's Gloss for the Cock?
The passages are Job 38 ch. 36 v. one in Isaiah one in
Proverbs. I cannot put my hand on the reference but I
think I gave it to you before — in a note about the tender-
' R. J. King said in his letter: —
" I have read ' The Quest of the Sangraal ' (let me thank you heartily for
it) with great interest and with very much liking. I ivish there had been
more of it. A longer effort — as long perhaps as to fill such a volume as
Tennyson's ' Idylls ' — would have more chance with the public — and would do
more towards placing you where I cannot but feel with yourself that you
might and ought to be. Would that any words of mine could induce you to
try. I believe, honestly, that 'The Quest' — if completed on a sufficiently
large scale — might turn out a greater success than either of us imagine.
. . . "Anyhow, my dear Sir, you iiave the satisfaction of knowing that
y(>ur name will always be connected with some of the most romantic spots in
the County which has never had a truer lover than yourself. You and your
verses are better known and in higher repute than you imagine — though 1
grant that more may still be effected." . . .
452 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
ness of our Translators towards the Demon and his
Banner-Bird the Cock — Ales cristatus. Mind, you can't
use a concordance because in spite of three passages in
Hebrews the very word Cock is suppressed in our English
Bible. Do you know why Printers are said to employ
Devils ? Because they do Demon's work, e.g., Words
which in the First Bibles were set up in Italics to signify
that they were not found in the original but were inserted
to supplement the sense affixed by the Translation — Well,
in course of reprint these words were no longer put in
Italics but in the Same type as the other Text, Now with
this knowledge take down the Te Deum. Thou hast
opened the K of H to all Believers — a falsehood — ' all ' is
an italic addition but not textual.
..." On Wednesday last a long rush of Red coats
swept thro' Wellcombe. Rolle's hounds had brought a
Fox from the inland. They came to a check there, and
Old Hopper, a burly Farmer whom you saw at the Sexton's
was assailed with inquiries from the Hunters if his Parson
(R. S, H,) hadn't printed a Book — Was it to be had &c, ?
Queer sort of fame this. If you could have seen old
Hopper's Face and heard his fruitless efforts to say after
me ' Sangraal ! ' "
The note referred to in this letter was as follows : —
"The Cock.
" Throughout the English Translation of the SS. the Enemy of
Man is dealt with gently respectfully and with reticence c.f.., e.g.,
the rendering in Ephes. 6/12 where ' Spirits of Wickedness' &:c., is
softened into ' Spiritual Wickedness ' &:c. Now I discern the same
delicacy in the matter of the Cock. This Bird is the usual
Eastern Emblem of the Great Spirit who fell. The Lord of the
Demons. The Rabbins assign to him and his the Shape of this
Bird, The Worshippers of Shectaun (Satan), the Yezidees,
personify their Idol thus. Now, cf. Three passages Job 38-36
LETTER TO QUEEN VICTORIA 453
Isaiah 22-17 ^.nd Proverbs 30-31 in the Vulgate and in the
English Bible. When the Bird which rebuked St. Peter is re-
garded as the Symbolic Spirit, created good once and retaining
still his original knowledge of Good and Evil, we perceive the
contrast, sc, ' Even the Demon and his Bird shall know and shall
announce the difference between darkness and light, while Thou
even thou wilt deny thy better knowledge of thy Master.' "
Hawker sent a vellum-bound copy of ' The Quest ' to
Queen Victoria with the following letter. She acknow-
ledged the gift through her secretary.
" Morwenstow, Cornwall. Deer. 30, 1863.
" Madam,
" I have been assured that His Royal Highness
the Prince your revered and lamented Husband took an
interest in our Cornish King Arthur, his Castle here by the
Sea, and the local Legends of his life. It is on that ac-
count therefore that I have ventured to proffer for your
Majesty's Sympathy these my Verses on such a theme :
and this I do with more than the usual Homage and the
natural Reverence of a Subject, because I too until this
sad year had a soothed and a happy home and now by the
death of my dear Wife I am companionless and alone. I
trust that your Majesty will at least forgive the intrusion
of one who cannot too strongly record himself
"Your faithful and
" dutiful Subject,
" R. S. Hawker,
" Vicar of Morwenstow.
" Her Majesty The Queen."
On 9 Jan., 1864, he writes to Mr. Godwin : —
. . , " At last a Criticism. Get immediately a copy of
the IVeel'/y Register of to-day and there you will see the
454 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
first instalment of a Review by Meynell's friend, or rather
as I suspect of Meynell himself. My only Fear is lest
Praise in that Quarter may not bring me Censure from
those whose only Religion consists in hatred of the
Religion of other men. Never mind. ' Fit audience find
though few. ' "
In a letter to Hawker Dr. Meynell says : — " I did not
write the notice of you in the Register ; though you do
recognize my sentiments ; for I told the writer what to say
and described to him your charming abode and the scenery
of Morwenstow. What a mess the reader has made of it !
well : you are not worse treated than poor Alexander
Smith. He wrote —
" ' See the pale martyr in his sheet of fire,'
and they made it
" ' See the pale martyr with his shirt on fire. ^ "
To " T/ie Revd. Pelagius Cowie!"
"Dec. 31, 1863.
"My Dear Cowie,
" I must acknowledge the punctuality with which
you pay your debts by P.O. order and also the subtlety with
which you postpone reading the Quest until after you had
written — but to be a complete copy of the Bishop of Exon
you ought to have said something of the undoubted pleasure
with which you looked forward to that perusal — Well, never
mind. If the half crowns come in so as to enable me to pay
for Print and Paper never mind the Praises — These I never
coveted in my best days and they are long ago fled. Tidings
I have none save that my two Heifers Blitha and Katy con-
spired to calve on the same day — and produced Two Heifer
Calves, thoro' Jersey White with olive spots like Pards. So
SIR KAY
455
there is future Cream for your Children and mine. They are
named Lottie and Lizzie, The Birth was certainly super-
natural,
" If you don't choose to write about Sangraals why cannot
your wife & Daughters ? I am half in anger, half in haste,"
To /. G. Godwin, Esq.
"Jany. 2, 1864.
. . . "The Four lines you stumble at I merely meant
as a touch of Character to identify Sir Kay and to con-
trast with the general gravity of the Poem. Kay was a
kind of Thersites of Dundagel, — always at hand with a
sarcasm and sneer — hence ' arrowy tongue,' He sees how
they devour and rend and exclaims ' Joseph and Pharaoh ! '
the two names that occur in union to his mediaeval mind
in connexion with Famine in Egypt fed by Joseph's care
for Pharaoh's land. Just as I might say, looking on at
Exeter Hall Dinner, your Exeter College, I mean,.
' Mitchell and Symons ! how they get on ! ' That is all.
No mystery nor latent meaning,
. . . " O what a Xmas ! I have gone through all the old
usages and not shrunk from one, although it was heart-
breaking work,
..." Now I hope in exchange for my report in full of
all that I know that you will keep me au fait of all the
Sayings in Oxford and about the 'Quest' and the Writer.
Never mind abuse. Let me hear it. Better be reviled
than disdained."
To the s (17)16.
"Jany. xj., 1864.
"My Dear Sir,
"A degrading and lying Notice of my ' Quest '
appears in the Church Review of Saturdiiy last. ' I have
456 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
no originality,' whereas I will pay the Reviewer lO;^ if he
will detect one borrowed image or stolen phrase. He
condemns my dogmatism about Our Lord's Burial in the
Garden, to which I have not in the remotest degree
alluded. It is, however, a consolation that the Man who
reviles me can find no better English to do it in than the
slipshod language and Grammar of a fourth-rate penny-a-
liner. The Editor or somebody for him sent me the
Paper, the existence of which I did not before know of. I
do hope soon to be attacked at least in sound diction, and
to all righteous Criticism no one is more ready to bow than
I. No other letters. By the way how did the Church
Review get a copy — From you } If so you can perhaps
guess the Writer. I should like to know his name, not
for notice but for admonition of the Kind of animal who
writes. If you hear of anything don't spare to tell me how-
soever adverse — e.g. — This Man calls me pedantic. So I
am, and I know all my own faults better than he does.
But Plagiarism is not one. Haste.
" Yrs, always,
" R, S. Hawker."
I cannot resist printing another letter on the subject of
this review, though expressed in much the same terms.
They are too racy and characteristic for either to be lost.
To J. Soniers James ^ Esq.
"Jany. xiij., 1864.
" My Dear John,
"A Paper addressed in your writing with a Review
of my ' Quest,' I trust that the writer is no friend of
yours, because I must pronounce him an utter donkey and
worse. My faults are better known to me than to any other
person. I know that I am dogmatic, proud, and mysterious.
HAWKER AND HIS REVIEWER 457
But I am not a plagiarist, and I will give you or yours lo;^
to name a thought a phrase or a word in my Poem that is
copied from another Man. If he means that I write in the
same metre as Tennyson no one but an idiot would call
that imitation any more than Milton could be called a
copyist because he wrote his Paradise Lost in the common
metre of his own day and of those who went before him.
What can the fellow mean by accusing me of writing
obscurely about the Burial of Our Lord, a matter I have
not in the remotest degree alluded to ? But enough of this.
Thank you for sending it, altho' the Author of the Paper
or Editor had taken care to send it to me before. Tell me
again all you hear. What I deserve I bear without a mur-
mur. What I do not I care not one jot about.
"Yrs. affy.,
"R. S. Hawker.
"The Queen has very graciously accepted her copy, and
Sir C. Phipps is commanded to thank me for it in good
words."
To J. G. Godwin, Esq.
" Jany. 24, 1864.
..." Tell me what to say to R. C. A letter from the
Man whose Judgment I venerate more than any man in
England, Dr. Ullathorne Bishop of Birmingham. He con-
victs me of a real fault in Note P. 1 7. Can you get me an
account of Rhabdomancy — Divination by the Rod ? ' Dows-
ing ' is the Cornish Keltic name."
To the same.
"July 31, 1864.
" No, thank you, no Stanley for me. I don't think he
deemed it any assumption to compare himself to the
458 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
Prophet of Nazareth of GaHlee. ... I send you copy of a
letter which I received to-day : —
" ' Cardinal Wiseman begs sincerely to thank the Revd. Mr.
Hawker for his beautiful Poem with which he was already
acquainted, and the subject of which much interested him, when
in his youth he read the Death of Arthur.
" ' Ramsgate. July 27, 1864.' "
On the Death of Cardinal Wiseman in the following
year Hawker wrote the memorial verses entitled ' Ichabod.'
The poem, which is highly eulogistic, ends thus : —
" Where reigns he now ? What throne is set for him
Amid the nine-fold armies of the sky ?
Waves he the burning sword of Seraphim ?
Or dwells a calm Archangel, crowned on high ?
We cannot tell. We only understand
He bears an English heart before God's throne ;
In heaven he yearns o'er this his chosen land ;
His zeal — his vows — his prayers — are yet our own !
' ' Die Cineriim, 1865."
CHAPTER XX
1863-4
Wreck of the ' Margaret Quayle ' — Brain Fever — Visit
TO Boscastle — Johnny Valentine.
" They will save the Captain's girdle,
And shirt, if shirt there be :
But leave their blood to curdle
For my old dame and me."
A Croon on Hennacliff'.
On 3 Dec, 1863, Hawker writes to Mr. Godwin : —
..." For Two days and Two Nights a Storm and a
Hurricane. Mr. Valentine and I going to the Hut together
were both blown down so as to fall flat on the ground
to avoid accident. A Vessel two miles off in distress and
while we were watching her she disappeared from our very
sight — either by foundering and sinking or by her Masts
going over the side and her hull falling over so as to be
unseen in the trough of the Sea."
A day or two later he sent to Mr. Godwin the following
vivid narrative : —
" The Wreck of the
Margaj-et Qtiayle of Liverpool.
1050 tons. Cargo Salt.
On Friday, December 4, 1863.
A cry at Sunrise — a Ship lying dismasted off Hennacliff
one mile off — Rushed out — saw Men on board the Hull —
459
46o LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
Ship at anchor — In — wrote a Note to the Coxswain of the
Bude Life Boat — ' put your Boat on her wheels, get
Horses at my expense and hasten up towards us — putting
to Sea at the first feasible Creek, to take off the Crew.'
Out again on my Cliffs with a Glass — saw the Crew in
knots on board to and fro — presently a boat lowered — 5
men got in, pointing for Marsland Mouth. Got my pony
and Mr. Valentine his — Rode up to Hennacliff, and then
on along the Cliff Brink side by side as the boat rowed —
up and down hill and valley. Boat heading still upward,
sometimes under the waves, then mounting them — on to
Speke's Mill — on to Hartland Quay — allowed no signal to
be made — Surf near Shore too high for Boat to live. At
last watched her round the point and saw them make
Clovelly Bay safe — Down to Hartland Quay — saw Coast-
guard— got them to promise to watch all Night — turned
towards our own Cliffs again. Dusk — saw when we got
near Marsland again another Boat lowered — saw her
staved at the Ship's side — washed ashore at the Mill 4 oars
no men. Dark at Marsland Mill. Found a concourse
there, among them Captain Ward Inspector of Lifeboats.
He was accidentally at Bude when my Note came — had the
Boat put off at Bude — wrong place — worst Surf anywhere
on the Coast — Two men in her washed over, rescued, then
desisted. To my question ' Why not put on wheels and
brought on ? ' no answer. Home. House full — Coast
guard from Bude — Police. Cliff again in the dark. At
the Hut. Saw a Watch Light burning on Board the Hull
— Flag flying half up a Spar — distress signal — Figures on
board passing to and fro. Stayed in the Hut till Mid-
night. Appointed Valentine to come down at daylight —
next Morning, Saturday, Ship at anchor still. No hope of
help from Bude. Started with V. for the North determined
to go on till we got help. At Clovelly found the Mate and
CONDUCT OF CLOVELLY MEN 461
4 Seamen — told us there were 19 more on Board — one
man drowned, [washed] over in heaving out the Anchor.
Tried every effort to induce Clovelly Men to go off in a
Skiff — sneaking Wesleyan Cowards — offered any Sum
they might ask — We to indemnify loss of Skiff. No help.
Arrived from Bideford Gossett, Collector of Customs. He,
seeing our distress and excitement, offered to send off to
Appledore near Bideford for their Lifeboat. He did so
and at Night we returned home. House full again. At
hut again — But no light at Vessel that Night — thought her
sunk. Sunday Morning — sent off Cann to go Northward
for tidings of Life Boat — at Church — First Psalm — a knock
at Chancel Door — Cann with a Note. — ' The Captain and
Crew of the AT. Q. desire to return thanks to Almighty God
for their rescue from Wreck and death.' Read it to the
people and gave thanks. Off for Wellcombe. In the first
field met Gossett and the Captain, Hugh Rowland, coming
to me. They had patched up an old Boat on board full of
holes — by a sail passed round her and tarred on and pieces
nailed — oars made from broken wood — Half the 19 bailed
Half rowed and reached Clovelly at 12 on Saturday Night,
Two hours before the Appledore Life Boat arrived there on
Wheels zvith 10 horses I ! Gossett and the Appledore Men
behaved nobly — Bude and Clovelly like thorough Wesleyan
sneaks. Sent back a Man to order Jane to get Dinner for
Gossett and the Captain and there I found them on my
return in the Dining Room comfortable. All went to
Evening Church and the Captain returned thanks personally
during Service. Ever since, Cann in charge of the ALists
and Rigging under Hennacliff. Sale at Noon to-morrow.
House always full of Guard, Police and our people. T. came
Saturday — went off to Bude — offered 40 horses — no use.
John Wesley years ago corrupted and degraded the Cornish
Character, found them wrestlers, caused them to change
462 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
their Sins and called it conversion. With my last Breath
I protest that the Man Wesley corrupted and depraved in-
stead of improving the West of England, indeed all the
Land. He found the Miners and the Fishermen an
upstanding rollicking courageous people. He left them
a downlooking lying selfish-hearted throng. I maintain
that he did not effect a single Moral Change. It is not
Conversion to establish a change of Sins. The Vices of
the Body are not after all, bad as they are, so hateful as the
Sins of the Mind. These latter the Demon prefers and
practices. He cannot be sensual tho' he tempts men
thereto. When Our Lord said ' By their fruits ye shall
know them ' he did not refer so much to the conduct of the
Heretics themselves as to the result of their doctrine where-
soever it is sown. Well, well. I have written in haste as
you may see an account of the Wreck. So now farewell."
A neighbour of Hawker's says : — " He drove up to my
house in a terrible state of agitation, as he always was when
a wreck occurred. ' What are you going to do ? ' he said.
I suggested sending for the Bude lifeboat. ' Bude ? No,'
he said, ' No good ever came from the West. I will go
East — Clovelly — Bideford- — Swansea, if necessary.' So he
drove off to Clovelly, with Mr. Valentine and the mate.
The little procession went down the main street of Clovelly
[a long flight of steps], Hawker expostulating, the mate
swearing, and Valentine offering untold gold. But all to
no purpose. The Clovelly men would not move."
At the risk of repetition in a few particulars I give also
part of a letter to Mrs. Watson describing the wreck, as it
reveals more of Hawker's own state of mind on these
trying occasions than the telegraphic style of his other
account. It takes up the story at the point when he and
Mr. Valentine returned after seeing the first boat land at
Hartland.
THE VICAR'S AGITATION 463
"Deer. 6, 1863.
..." We came back — The cliffs thronged with people.
She lay rolling. Night fell. All Night her large light was
visible from this Window. Next day, Saturday, no tidings
from the Mate till Nightfall. Then he came in a Fury.
He had offered at Clovelly any Sum they demanded, if they
would only go off to the Vessel to bring off the Crew. Not
a Man would volunteer. He had telegraphed on to Bristol
and Swansea asking for a Steamer to go down — answers —
at one place the Steamer already engaged in saving another
Vessel, and at another a vague promise to come down
Channel if possible. The Poor Man was in such a State
that Mr. Valentine sent down again to Bude offering a Sum
of Money if the Life Boat would try again — answer — they
could not risk it — thus affirming my judgment and pro-
phecy that she would never save life. Mr. Thynne sent
down his team of horses offering to draw the boat up near
the Vessel if they would try. But they still refused.
" Meanwhile a Mr. Gossett, Collector of Customs at Bide-
ford, arrived at my House. I at once assailed him with
every entreaty in my power to make effort to save the
Crew. In order to understand it you must realise the
Scene. The tall Cliff 454 feet high at my Right hand —
Before my very window at the bottom of my Valley this
Ship at anchor with 19 Souls hovering between life and
death and the poor Mate and Seamen imploring me con-
tinually with tears to rescue their companions. When
Gossett saw the Scene He said ' Well, Mr. Hawker, if only
to shew my sense of your past kindness to the Sailors on
your Coast I will send off to Ap{:)ledore (21 miles) for our
Life Boat there. She shall be brought on her Wheels to
your Parish and her Crew shall try to get off these men.'
He sent off an order for ten horses last night and we are
earnestly awaiting them now. I shall keep this letter open
464 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
all night and add a line of failure or success to-morrow
before daylight. But my very heart is broken when I am
so racked and strained and no kind voice to cheer me as in
such scenes of old. I cannot avoid my duties and here are
the events of my Parish — no man ever was tried as I am.
Mr. V. is as kind as a Man can be and he has done a part
of the duty again to-day. But it is the inner strain that as
it were slays me.
" The Captain and Mate and all the Crew are saved.
They were taken off the Wreck by their own boat last
night. I am writing at Seven on Monday Morning by
Candlelight, having got up to finish my letter. They have
left two dogs on board — poor creatures. But the 23 men
are all saved. God is merciful. The Captain saw my
Church from Deck and vowed a vow to give God thanks in
it if he ever got ashore again. Vessel called after Owner's
dead Wife."
"Deer. 8, 1863.
" My Dear Mrs. Watson,
" The Captain came on Monday, yesterday, to
thank me in the name of the men for my efforts which they
had seen from the Ship — perceiving a Gentleman in a
loose and Clergyman-looking garb. They left their dogs
on Board — Two — one a Retriever the other a Newfound-
land Dog — and three pigs : the latter could get at Corn
but the dogs had only biscuit. I reproved him for leaving
them. He said it cut him to the heart to do it but there
was not room for even one of them in the boat. Two days
before the Storm the dogs refused their food and came aft
howling, looking up in their faces and meaning some fore-
sign of evil. I charged him to try to get them off and he
promised me he would endeavour. He had sent the Mate
to Bideford to telegraph for a steam tug to take the Vessel
DOGS LEFT ON THE WRECK 46s
off, and to-day we have seen it done. She is by this time
safe in Swansea over against. Last Night sitting here at
midnight with everything so still the long distant howl of
the dogs coming over the Sea pleading for rescue quite
overcame me — and my poor wicked fellow [his dog, who
had taken to worrying sheep] — heard it and whined. The
Captain desires me to return public thanksgiving in my
Churches on Sunday for their safe deliverance. The Psalms
for Sunday were singularly applicable and so was the
Gospel, on the first words of which I preached down to
' The Son of Man,' telling my people that when the terrors
come and the Sea and the Waves roar there is evermore
the Son of Man upon the Cloud.
" No corpse yet. The Captain told me he never had so
good and peaceable a Crew — the only wild man was the
Boatswain and he was knocked overboard by the anchor
and drowned. The Masts, Sails, and cordage are all on my
Rocks on the Glebe, and they will be at Auction on
Wednesday for the benefit of the People who insured the
Vessel."
"Deer. 13, 1863.
" Mv Dear Mrs. W' atson,
" I have forestalled my tidings by a Second Letter
but not yet exhausted the Records of the Western Shore.
You will understand me when I say that I have escaped
the horrors of Two more Wrecks and by a narrow chance.
One Ship is now ashore at the North, Seven Miles off at my
Right Hand, and all her Crew are saved, and another nine
miles off, a mile beyond Bude on my left hand, a French
Schooner her hands also (7) escaped alive on Shore. Still
the Water contains several corpses and this is the ninth
clay until when as the common people say no dead body
floats. This is actually true but not from any superstitious
466 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
notion, only that until decomposition takes place the body
does not float, and this commences under the Water nine or
ten days after drowning.
" Still, as you remark, it is providential that I have a
Clergyman for a Parishioner because if I am knocked up
by influenza or worry there will be some one to take my
place in Church and Burial. Poor Mr. Valentine ! he has
been terribly excited and appalled, and he implores me to
write my history or to give an account of the Scenes which
have occurred in my path of duty on this Shore. I tell
him when the drop subsides into the Sea it is remembered
no more, and such will soon be the fate of one who saw his
threescore birthday fade on the 3rd of this Month.
" I will enclose Mr. Gossett's letter to me after his return
home. You see he sympathizes with my anxiety for the
dogs and announces their arrival in Safety on Shore. I
know not in all history a more striking instance of the
faithfulness of a dumb creature than that of the Retriever,
only a mile from Shore, able to swim perfectly well to the
Land, but refusing to leave the Ship tho' hungry and de-
serted by the men. The Captain said a iiner Creature
never trod a deck and Mr. Quayle valued him at ;^20."
The sequel to the wreck was a lawsuit over the question of
salvage. In April, 1864, Hawker writes to Mr. Godwin : —
" I have been sounded by a Mr. Stevens, a Solicitor in
Cardiff, as to my readiness to go to London to give
evidence as to the behaviour of the Men of Clovelly in
the affair oHheMargare^ Quazl [sic],the Ship wrecked under
my Cliff last year. But this would be too formidable an
undertaking for me, and luckily Mr. Gossett, Collector of
Customs at Bideford, was present all the time, heard our
offer, Valentine's and mine, for any Sum they might claim
for fetching the Crew off the Wreck and their refusal —
whereas the next day they went off to rob the Owner by
DRAMATIC SCENE AT CLOVELLY 467
unshackling the Anchors, casting her adrift so that when
the Tug arrived to tow her away she was loose on the Sea.
Yet on the plea that she was a derelict these rascals are
claiming Salvage. So Mr. G's Evidence will supersede
mine. Conceive me ! in the Witness-Box of the Admiralty
Court."
The Vicar took no pains to conceal his indignation at
the behaviour of the Clovelly men, Mr. Baring-Gould
says " They would probably have made a wreck of him,
had he ventured among them." As a matter of fact, he
did venture among them, a few months later, and the result
was a dramatic scene. Hawker describes it himself in a
letter to Mr. Valentine dated 5 July, 1864: —
..." Yesterday I ordered the horses and Cann and
took with me Captain John Valentine ^ and his Nurse and
went off to Clovelly for the express purpose of getting
Fish. There was a kind of riot on the Quay when the
Trawlers came in. I took a boat and went on board. To
my surprise the First and Second Boat refused to let me
have any Soals under 8d a lb — the selling price to the
Fishmen being 4d. While I was on the deck of one
Vessel a Man sung out from the Quay ' Don't you sell any
Fish. This is one of the Parsons who tried to take away
the money from the Clovelly Men who saved the Margaret
Quayle.' Then I understood all the matter. Old Breage
the Master of the Ranger had a share in these two
trawlers. But there arose friends all around who cried —
* Parson Hawker the Sailors' Friend, He that buried so
many poor drowned fellows at his own expense. Shame
that he should want Fish.' So a Man called Burman,
owner of another Trawl, came to me and said, ' Only wait.
Sir, till my Trawl comes ashore, and you shall have the
■ Mr. Valentine's little son, who was staying with Hawker, while his father
was away.
468 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
pick of mine.' I did so, and amid a whole mob of rascals I
stood ruling them with my eye and look. * Hurrah for
Parson Hawker and Parson Valentine ! ' from the opposite
party. End was Six Couple of magnificent Fish — Crabs
and Lobsters many — Hake, Tub, &c — quite a loaded
Hamper. Some are gone to Combe to-day. Some dressed
here, and a dinner for me after my long fast.
"Johnny won great homage. He marched down the
Street leading by my hand and Cann's, shouting like a
Trooper. A Lady unknown came up and said ' What
a fearless little Boy yours is. Sir.' ' Madam,' said I, ' He is
not mine. I have only borrowed him, as people do in
London to excite interest and gain goodwill' I have
told Johnny of an excellent little boy called Richard
Valentine who always behaves well and gets the cakes.
And now when he has been rebellious he comes to me
demanding the Boy-Boy who is behind the Scenes."
CHAPTER XXI
1863-4
The Vicar's Loneliness — Death of Thackeray — The Vicar
HAS Brain Fever — Garibaldi — Newman and Kingsley —
" A very Unpretending Old-fashioned Young Lady " —
Jeune made a Bishop — His Blue Swallowtail — The
Vicar Photographed — Even the Warts — Darwin and
Lyell — " Blue Eyes Melt : Dark Eyes Burn ", — Love
Poems — Little Johnny Valentine — "Do You Think I
Ought or Not?"
Now that his poem was published, and he had nothing to
distract his thoughts, the Vicar began to feel his loneliness
more and more. In a letter to Mrs. Watson thanking her
for a book she had sent him he says —
"In order to understand the value of such a solace from
without, you should realize my nightly life from Nine till
Twelve. The House silent — Servants in Bed — and I by
my lonely lamp with only the deep breathing of the dog in
my room, and outside the loud sob of the seething Sea —
Wakeful and thoughtful — my Book before me and my pen
at my side to jot down some solitary thought. A more
dreary unbroken watch you cannot conceive. Sometimes
Theology and sacred subjects become too oppressive to be
borne, and then I read the Newspaper for relief."
He was much affected at this time b}' the sudden death
of Thackeray, on 24 Deer., 1 868. " Thackera)- the Author,"
469
470 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
he writes to Mrs. Watson, " a Man of strong and impulsive
nature, was found dead three days agone in his prime.
Sheer excitement did it — that and disappointment. What
a terror for such natures ! O may God shield me from such
a doom, for it is one to the unready."
It seems strange that anyone should apply to Hawker
in his remote solitude for information about events in
London : but he took a strong interest in public affairs, and
through his many correspondents he was a busy gatherer
of personal gossip. In reply to a question of Mrs. Watson's
he writes again about Thackeray : —
" Only one new thing about him has occurred to me, and
that is that he kept a Carriage and Pair of Horses, a custom
that in London implies an Income of ;^2000 a year, and
that he lived altogether in a more splendid manner and far
above the usual custom of a literary man. What a contrast !
Here am I uncertain if I shall gain enough to Pay for the
print and paper of my little Book, and if I do quite satisfied,
while he revelled in thousands a year. Still my Book is
too unimportant to attract any great regard or sale."
In his next letter he says : —
" When you asked about Mr. Thackeray I wrote to a
friend likely to know his history, and from him and other
sources I find that he was a very fortunate man. His
Father left him a fortune which he spent partly at College
and partly abroad. He then began to Write, and he soon
got a name among the booksellers and in the London
World. He lived luxuriously, and realized not only a large
but an enormous fortune by his pen. W^hat his habits were
may be guessed from the following fact. He once sent for
a famous Architect and said to him, ' I place in }'our hands
^10,000 and I require from you in exchange for that sum
a good House in such and such a Situation, furnished and
prepared for me to enter upon, without buying or providing
HAWKER DISCUSSES THACKERAY 471
personally a single thing ? ' His friend fulfilled the com-
mission, and Thackeray drove to the door when it was
complete, and began to occupy it without a care or a
trouble. He kept a fine Establishment, and visited the
first Nobility of the day. He has left to his daughters
;^300 a year each, besides a great deal of personal property
and the House. His Mother lived with him, and as she
slept in the room over him, heard him moving about in the
night just before he is supposed to have died.
" He rose into notice first by writing satire and verse of
a humorous nature and in Punch. I confess to a want of
relish for that Paper, nor do I sympathize with satirical
writings. There is too much in our Natures to sadden and
subdue, and I do not like that men should mock one
another, all being in God's image and Brother men.
Thackeray was writing a novel when he died, and he had
reached the fourth number just a day or two before. I do
not find that he was A Man of any religious feeling or habit,
and in short, he passed his whole time in that most frivolous
of all human gatherings called London Society. He is
said to have been a very handsome Man, with a head, how-
ever, unnaturally large. His Ikain was nearly twice as
heavy as that of other men. He had a mass of flowing
hair almost white from silkiness not from age. He was a
Man of Genius no doubt, but his satirical vein made many
enemies, and only a fortnight before he died he was refused
admission into a Body of Literary Men, who had combined
into a Shakspere Committee, because of this tendency.
These points which I have mentioned are not to be found
in the public prints but may be depended on."
Soon after this the Vicar had a severe attack of brain
fever. The troubles of the previous year, the excitement
of the wreck and of publishing his book, had told upon
him. He missed also the careful hand that had ordered his
472 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
household, and he had become careless about his food.
After an illness of some weeks, he went on a visit to his
brother at Boscastle, and while there revisited Tintagel.
" I stood on the Bastion of the Castle last week," he writes
to Mr. Godwin. " Not a stone altered for 40 years." What
would he say if he could go there now, to find a huge
modern hotel planted among the ruins of King Arthur's
hold?
He returned to Morwenstow better in health, but the
sight of the familiar scene revived sad associations. On
10 April 1864 he writes : —
" My Ever Dear Friend, Mrs. Watson,
" Once more I sit down to write to you in order
from my accustomed Chair — opposite hers which no one has
occupied or shall occupy while I live. But, whereas this
simple fact is a solution of much of my anguish, let me tell
you that the reason why I am so much worse here than else-
where is that this House and Church and ground are as it
were one vast Sepulchre to me. If I look out at the
Windows I see the Church that bends over her Tomb — the
paths are those she trod with me — the rooms are as she left
them — and all as she arranged. She was orderly to a
fault. I shall not revert to this again but I wanted to
reveal to my dearest friend the reason why this place can
never be to me a cheerful abode more."
" Mr. Valentine is gone to his Living, W^hixley in
Yorkshire. He writes most kindly. One proof will shew
this. When I was worse I was very anxious about my
poor dog — her pet — I thought he would be hung for his
propensity to worry sheep. So I asked Mr. V^alentine to
take him and to promise that he should not be put to death.
He did promise and he took the dog immediately into his
own charp-e. This is taking real trouble to obli^:e me and
RECOVERY FROM BRAIN FEVER 473
I am grateful. You say rightly. My illness has brought
out a great deal of latent kindness that I had not thought
existed."
"April 17, 1864.
" My Dear Friend, Mrs. Watson,
" I am able to fulfil my duties again and how can
I ever thank God enough that his hand was not shortened
but that he is still mighty to save."
..." Poor Cann gets me out as much as possible. Dr.
Budd having charged him so to do. You are thoroughly right
about Budd. He is not only an excellent Physician but a
good and kind man. I find that he told all about me to
write to him if I became worse, but hinted that he would
come down without further charge and undertake any
trouble for my welfare in his power. It soothes and
gratifies to discover so much and such unselfish kindness
in all."
" The surrounding Clergy have surprised me by what
they have done and said. They told my Brother how much
they regretted I should so shut myself up — that if I would
but go amongst them they would look up to me and follow
my lead in Church matters and rejoice to do so. But the
truth is, as you well know, that while I had one to watch
over and care for I could not leave my home and since
I have had no heart. I will do all in my power to shew
that I am grateful, but I cannot at my age and position
begin to visit as some do."
" You must not accuse me of despair — very far from that ;
but when you recall the fact that for 40 years I never left
her side — never was absent six hours — that all my wants
were foreknown, every thought and action shared and
mutual, you must perceive what a wrench it is to be utterly
and entirely alone and, as you yourself say, at night restless
sleepless and full of thick-coming fancies and thoughts."
474 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
To the Rev. W. Valentine.
"April 23, 1864.
" Home from Penstowe last night after four days visit.
Better. . . Now take my advice, Anchor a Curate there as
soon as you can and come down to us. . . Say / will and
act on it. That word is omnipotent. We had a pleasant
day enough on Thursday. Mrs. V and Miss K came to
Penstowe to dine. We went to the Concert where I
established an encore of two Songs from Mrs. T and
Trentham. All went off well and I put them into the
Carriage at half past nine under charge of Sir John Spence
Bart., M.P. for Chapel.^ Eva was however disgusted and
shewed it. The Band terrified her as it did me."
To J. G. Godwin, Esq.
"April 22, 1864.
..." My memory as I told you is so gone that I fear I
may be repeating myself if I send you my lines on the
Buccaneer.^ No London Paper will I suspect insert them
except the Weekly Register. Very glad indeed you have
made me by your promise for July. God grant us a calm and
happy meeting. I hear from very reliable authority that
the Queen said when the papers proclaimed Garibaldi's
reception ' I was never ashamed of England until now.'
The look and the gesture of Napoleon when he said what
he did of the English ovation were eloquent of scorn and
derision. All he meant was that the uproar and outcries
of the English people were such as he should have expected
of such a Nation ! There is no room to doubt that
pressure was brought to bear on the Corsair to induce his
departure. . . You mention the Book-box. Do }'ou know
' Spence was Mr. Valentine's coachman, Chapel the name of his house.
2 Garibaldi. See page 97.
NEWMAN AND KINGSLEY 475
any good Library besides the Baptist Preacher's Mudie to
which I could subscribe ? "
"April 24, 1864.
•'My Dear Mrs. Watson,
" In the small Parish of Wellcombe I have had 3
funerals since this day week — one a sudden and therefore
a happy death — one a child, the third brought from Bide-
ford to rest with Country Relatives in my small peaceful
silent ground. I cannot now read the Service as I used to
— emotion is apt to overcome me. You will not accuse me
of vanity if I tell you that when I buried Mrs. Chope Sir
George and Lady Stucley were present and told Mr.
Valentine that they never heard the Burial Service read so
impressively in all their lives. I think it is because I feci
it now in every word.
" But I do pride myself in Wellcombe far more than in
this Parish. When I began to serve it many years agone
not ten people came to Church and now it is as full every
Sunday as it can hold, and their breathless behaviour strikes
every Clergyman with surprise.
" I cannot yet make up my mind to continue visiting.
In fact with my health good I am nowhere so calm and
contented as in my own house. I often think of the
Shunamite who when Elijah asked if she would be spoken
of to the King or to the Captain of the Host answered
' I dwell among my own people.' "
To J. G. Godiuin, Esq.
"April 25, 1S64.
..." I have seen extracts from the Newman and
Kingslc}' controvers}- in the Weekly Register «!\:c. hut no
fuller account. I sliould think the contest must be uncciual.
..." The Queen is said to have postpcjned the Second
476 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
Drawing Room which had been announced, solely from dis-
gust at the certainty that the People who came to greet
her were reeking with Garibaldi.
..." Your Bampton Lecturer this year is, I see, Mozley,
my correspondent. Nothing very original or orthodox I
apprehend. But what can you expect with men like
Stanley, the English Renan, in high place ? I read his
lectures on the O. T. lately, and I am ready to go before a
Master extra in Chancery and swear that he is a Socinian
Infidel. His mind is so circumcised that he deems and
calls the Second Person of the Trinity a Prophet of the
degree of Moses or Mohammed, and in his doctrine about
Sacrifice and atonement he does not even ascend to the level
of a Thalmudist Jew."
To J. G. Godwin, Esq.
"May ijd., 1864.
..." There is a Miss Kuczynski a Pole by one Parent
who is Governess to the Family of Mr. Valentine. Her
Father-in-law [he means her step-father] Mr. H. Stevens,^
who is a kind of Bookselling Agent between America and
England, is going down to consult Books in the Bodleian.
She wall accompany him and as she has heard me frequently
talk of my Friend Mr. Godwin and has seen his Photograph
she may calculate on an introduction. Now from what you
know of that Gentleman would he like it ? She is a very
unpretending old-fashioned young Lady of 21 or 2 and
would give no trouble to any one. But you may perhaps
know Mr. Stevens. He is important enough to have been
invited by Mr. Adams the American Minister to meet the
Ruddy Assassin ^ last week in London.
' The late Mr. Henry Stevens of Vermont, at that time a well known
figure in the world of books.
- Garibaldi.
SIXTY LAST DECEMBER 477
..." I wish I could aid you in your upper County walk
along the Roman Road. There is a Ride in another
direction which I have projected for you when you come
down, so that you must not be absorbed in another line nor
curtail by one day the full time you can spare me here. My
appetite is I think returning and my health. You will find
me surrounded by the old fidelities, Cann and Jane and
Mary my young Maids. Their anxiety for me (all through
my illness) has been beyond praise. Thank you kindly for
John Bull the English Chmrhnian, &c.
"May 8, 1864.
" My Dear Mrs. Watson,
" Another week of comparative health and
middling appetite and better rest at night. Another mercy
won from my Master in Heaven. Thynne said to me one
day ' Hawker, how old are you ? ' ' Sixty last Deer.' ' Then
you have had your life and gifts of mind and fame above
all your surrounding brethren. You ought to be thankful.'
So I am, and every month and year now granted me is a
boon from above. But neither he nor any others except
you my kind friend in Lancashire whom I have not yet seen
and to whom I have told all things can guess how much
misery has filled mycupof life. Still if I reckon fairly I have a
large balance of God's loving kindness to confess and be
grateful for.
" What shall you do with my likeness ? Why, order it
to be burnt, that no trace may remain of one who has little
cause or wish to be remembered here but who hopes to
meet you face to face in the presence of God — there to
converse about the first world wherein we sojourned a little
v/hile before we began the more enduring life that will end
no more — where all tears shall be wijjed awa\- from all
faces and we shall know even as we are known. Our loving
478 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
Father in Heaven has prepared this for all who love him as
I do and I am sure you do also."
To J. G. Godwin^ Esq.
"May xj., 1864.
"My Dear Sir,
" At last then Jeune is a Bishop and now for the
way wherein he will sustain the role. How old Oxford
comes back upon the mind at occurrences like these. I
remember his First Class and Jacobson's hysterical Second.
When he found that a Second only awaited him and knew
well that his Rival Jeune would rank higher he was seized
with a fit of sobbing and was helped out of the Schools.
Then Jeune had his Fellowship and was appointed Tutor.
His High Street garb in those days was a blue Swallowtail
Coat with yellow Buttons. Then at King Edward's
School, Birmingham, he, the Oxford Radical, became Con-
servative and orthodox. But at St. Heliers as Dean, Whig
again. He may turn right again. ... I have written to-
night my letter of gratulation. As Lord Ellenborough
said to Law his Brother, when he kissed hands (George 4th)
on his appointment, said Lord E. before the King ' Now,
George, I have been fool enough to recommend you for a
Bishopric : don't you be fool enough to open your mouth
in the House of Lords.' I wrote to Neate the other day
asking him if I was unforgotten to get a nomination to a
Civil Clerk's examination for a young Parishioner,^ and he
obtained it for me from Milner Gibson last week. I did
not meditate a total walk. I fear I shall not be equal to
the toil. But I did intend to drive as far as wheels can go
among the Logans and Pillars of Rowtor and Brownguillie
Dundadgel &c. ... I thank God my Brain is free from
* Mr. R. A. Mountjoy, See page 496.
GOLDWIN SMITH 479
any evil effects of disease and save a little sciatica I am
well.
..." What trash Goldwin Smith has been writing about
the Athanasian Creed. Men whose shoe's latchet he is not
worthy to unloose have understood and acquiesced in what
he pronounces unintelligible and untrue. But the truth is
any Fool can lift up his voice with his No No — any deny
what wise men say. Good Night.
" Yrs. very faithfully,
R. S. Hawker."
To Mrs. Watson.
"May 15, 1864.
" If I sought for change or Preferment elsewhere there is
now a means within my reach. Jeune late Head of Pem-
broke College Oxford one of my first and longest College
friends is made the Bishop of Peterborough. He had been
Dean of Lincoln for five months. It was an old promise of
his that if ever he came to be a Bishop I should have the
choice of whatsoever Patronage fell to his gift. But of
course all this is to me now impossible. A Canonry of
^1000 a year would not now lure me away from this Church
with its grave and its remembrances. Health and Solitude
are the only Blessings that I ever pray for now. Do not
call it churlish. It is not. But long long habits have
moulded my mind and you must remember that for many
many years I have had but one companion. So entirely
alone have I lived on that except in my Father's lifetime
and in his Church I never preached in any other
Pulpit but my own. Yet Strangers and those who seek-
to flatter me say that in a Town I should be a ver\'
popular preacher and have hundreds to listen instead of
this small flock."
48o LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
To Mrs. Watson.
" May 22, 1864.
" The Lady whose letter I enclose is Mrs. Mills who was
Agnes Acland the Wife now of Mills Member for Taunton.
" How the world outside my Vicarage marches on while
I stand still. Little Agnes Acland who used for years to
come every Summer and sit upon my knee to eat fruit is now
a Member's Wife and dispensing Patronage at my request.
She asked me in the Autumn when I was here to sit for my
Photograph and although I have a great dislike to do it I
have consented to do it."
To the same.
" May 23, 1864.
..." Nothing much amiss but my appetite will not
return nor my sleep. So last week I drove up to Barnstaple
to confer with Dr. Budd. I was at his house all the time I
I was there — among other things he induced me to sit to a
Photographer who tried twice to take my likeness and
failed. But Dr. Budd is himself an Artist and he took'one
that he calls a beautiful specimen." ^
To the same.
"May 29, 1864.
" On Thursday the Archdeacon held his Visitation at
Bude and thither I rode down early with Cann j'for my
company. There was no Sermon but a long charge from
the Archdeacon and not in my own private opinion a
judicious one. He brought before us and the Church-
wardens laymen and Farmers all the topics of the day —
about Colenso and Darwin and Sir C. Lyell who have
' This photograph by Dr. Budd is here reproduced.
DARWIN AND LYELL 481
impugned the Bible records of Creation and the Origin of
Man and the Flood. What I condemn is his introducing
subjects of infidelity and doubt in order to refute them of
which the auditors had never before heard. Many of the
Farmers, so Cann informed me, would remember the objec-
tions to the Bible who would not understand the Arch-
deacon's replies. You know I dare say from the Papers
that Colenso attacks the Chronology of Holy Writ, whereas
my little children at the School would teach him that
whereas in Heaven Time does not exist there could be no
such thing regarded in inspiration as Dates or Periods
or Years. Darwin's Theory is that Man was gradually
produced in a series of life beginning with shellfish — and
ending in the First Man. Lyell holds that the Earth
is older than the Scriptural History relates judging from
the Strata of the crust : but here again comes in the fact
that with God and therefore with those whom God had
inspired there could be no measured duration of events for
want of Time to measure with — Time which is the Clock of
Adam invented by man to reckon withal but which in
Heaven no one could understand."
To Rev. W. Valentine.
" May 31, 1864.
..." Yesterday I had a kind of good-bye dinner for
Miss Kuczynski and the three children. Gloom among the
Children to-day at losing Miss K. altho' they behaved very
well promised not to cry and did not much. I hope and
trust she will return altho' great efforts are I see to be made
by her Mother and her Step-r^ather to prevent it.
" I send )-ou my lines on dear little Eva's Birthday.
They are to be read to her e\ery Birthday till she is
Sixteen and then to herself and her Husband."
2 H
482 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
To Mrs. Watson.
"June 5, 1864.
" Well I have had sent to me what is called a Proof or
Specimen of my own Photograph Seated in a chair — hold-
ing in one hand my hat. I was told to assume a steady
natural attitude and to call up some pleasant thought. I
did so, thought of a distant friend and tried to smile. The
likeness is pronounced to be accurate and I see delineated
even the warts, as Cromwell told the Painter when he sate
for his Portrait, ' Be exact,' said he, * whatever you do, and
don't omit a single wart.' But the Sun is no flatterer and
every defect is as faithfully copied as a good feature."
To J. G. Godwin, Esq.
"June v., 1864.
. . . " I have not written for I am not what I was. A
kind of apathy or recklessness whichsoever it be has so
absorbed me that I cannot even read as I once did, and
driving or riding out is of no avail. The only lines I have
written since the ' Quest' are on the birthday of Valentine's
little daughter about five years old.
..." At Bude last week the Archdeacon's Visitation
Talk turned on Garibaldi. I gave my Four lines with
emphasis to the Archdeacon's great delight : there were
two or three Garibaldians among the Clergy."
To Mrs. Watson.
"June 26, 1864.
" I am promised by this Post my Photographs. I sate in
a chair to be taken with the hat which I usual!)' wear, in
my hand. It is the only characteristic usage about me
now, therefore I retained my hat. And now }-ou will
allow me to express my regret again that \-ou refuse to
exchange Photographs. Your signals of age cannot equal
THE VICAR PHOTOGRAPHED 483
mine, for all who know me judge me ten years older than
I am, and you may see even in Photographs tokens of the
wear and tear of the last few years. I was as a young
man reckoned handsome, and if I had been allotted the
usual quietude and comfort of an English Parsonage I
might have worn well, but * whatever burns consumes and
only ashes remain.' The cark and care the toil and
turmoil of my latter life have told upon face and form —
and the Ten or Twelve Deathbeds that I have stood by in
my poor dear Wife's family and my own have made me ' the
wreck I am, the living death men see.' Poor Cann said to
me the other day ' Why Sir when we used to find the dead
Sailors on the Shore, and carry them in, you didn't use to
give way, but now I see you weeping when you go into
Church.' He spoke the mournful truth. But I must not
dwell, as I am too apt to do, on myself"
"Julys, 1864.
" Mv Dear Mrs. Watson,
" Your opinion of my Photograph is I find that
of many others who have seen it. Like yourself as you
know I never did like these sun-pictures as they call them.
It is true they must be likenesses but they not only do not
flatter they actually distort and to coin a w^ord uglify the
original as does a caricature. My poor Wife never could
bear them and resisted every entreaty of mine to have hers
taken. ^ She used to say that every person who had a
Photograph taken tried to call up a forced and unnatural
expression under the notion of trying to look better and
otherwise than their natural countenance and therefore the
result was failure. Still I do regret exceeding!}' that she
could not be prevailed on, because I should have liked that
others might have known the features that I can never
■ This is the reason wliy there is no portrait of her in this hook.
484 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
forget. Her face was indeed a perfect image of noble
Womanhood — oval — blue-eyed — with a nose slightly
curved somewhat like my own — a firm mouth, and a fore-
head moderately high banded with soft light hair that never
turned gray to the last. But it was the expression that
was so striking. You could see every kind emotion and
loving impulse on her face and She never heard a good
thought or noble sentiment without moistened eyes and
quivering lip. In my dining room there hang upon the
wall pictures of her two elder Sisters, Twins, her youngest
Sister and her Father. She was most like the latter — but
of her dear face no outline except that graven on my heart
and that comes to me ever and anon in dreams."
To Mrs. Watson.
"July 17, 1864.
" A Mr. L'Estrange, a Clergyman, writes me from his
yacht dating from Penzance Harbour that he was here last
week and felt great interest in the Church but could have
wished to have seen me to explain the Antiquities. He
asks where he could obtain my books — ' Echoes from Old
Cornwall,' and ' The Quest ' — and he is very complimentary.
It is a part of my misfortune in writing that while all my
books sell I never reap a pecuniary profit from them. To
be mixed up with booksellers is to fall among thieves — all
authors complain of them but none ever were so luckless as
I. But now I hope by Godwin's help to get some small
profit. I intend to print at Oxford a thick volume, a
collection from all my published works of the best poems,
and this book if I can I shall sell in copyright to Parker
and he will undertake risk and outlay. But it always
strikes me now as a thing too late : my life seems over,
and my work done. You very kindly encourage me to
hope for added years but then }-ou do not cannot know
TEETH FROM THE CRIMEA 485
how I am worn out. I have lived in every year two
of ordinary events and trials, and hence it is that I am
so shaken.
" Did I ever tell you that that beautiful verse about
Moses is mistranslated. It runs in our Version — ' His eye
was not grown dim neither was his Natural force abated.'
■But in the literal Hebrew it is ' His eye had not grown dim
neither were his teeth loosened.' This latter clause is most
expressive. When the teeth are gone it is a sure token of
general decay. Now I have literally none — stumps only.
The last two fell out this Summer. Yet nothing would in-
duce me to wear the teeth of other men — for say what they
will of artificial teeth the truth is that the false teeth of the
modern dentist are taken from the human jaw.
" After the Crimean battles there were alwa\-s Jews on
the field who were employed in drawing the teeth of the
dead. It is told that a ton of them, twenty hundred weight,
were exported in one Vessel.
"You ask me why I dislike to preach at Kilkhampton ?
I have had all my life a horror of Shew Sermons — that is
to say of a Man's getting up to preach a fine discourse to
win admiration. We should alwa)'S ask ' what is our
mission ? ' — mine is to teach my own peojile. I am not
se?it to instruct Th}-nne's flock. You remember Our Lord
himself was most scruj^ulous about doing an\thing out of
place. He said ' I am not sent but unto the lost Sheep of
the house of Israel,' and again when they came to ask him
to advise about propcrtx^ he asked ' Who made me a judge
and a dixidcr over }'ou ?' The praise accorded to him l\v
the i'Lvangelist was, He did nothing out of accord with liis
office. Xf)thing you know is more usual tliaii for men to
seek tc^ become popular ])rcachers and to co\-ct the ap-
plause of an\' congregation besides tlieir own flock. '1 his
has ahvax's struck me as \erv sinful. l'Acr\' .Minister has
486 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
a Flock of his own whom he is bound to teach and feed
and for what he does to them as teacher he will be requited
by God. But no man is sent to address another man's
own people. No reward is promised to a Man for any
duty not laid upon him nor have we any right to elect and
choose what duties we will fulfil. St. Paul calls all such
efforts wrong and encroaching on another man's line. It is
on account of these reasons that I have always confined
myself to my own pulpit and desk. I have been in Holy
Orders upwards of 30 years and yet except in my poor
Father's Church and because of the illness of another
Clergyman I do not remember preaching in any Church but
my own. I never preached a Charity Sermon in my life I
think nor did I ever deliver a discourse with a view to
human praise. It is not churlishness — no man ever called
me churlish — nor is it from ill-nature but from a sense of
duty and retiring habits of body and mind. I cannot think
I am wrong. How many Men I have known who in order
to get popularity have preached not what they themselves
believed but the doctrines current among the people under-
neath the pulpit. I remember well when the Present
Bishop of Oxford ^ came to this Country to collect funds for
the Propagation Society he asked me what opinions were
common among his audience, that he might accommodate
his Speeches to them and their prejudices instead of utter-
ing his own opinion and the truth. All such time-serving
is unworthy a Minister. He is ordained to teach and told
to reprove rebuke exhort with all authorit}'. It is this
custom of shrinking from a due delivery of the truth that
has made the English Nation what it is. Every untaught
person is emboldened to regard himself as a Judge of
Divine Truth and so every man becomes his own ^Arbiter
of Rio;ht and \\\roncj.
' Samuel \^'ilberforce.
LIKE DEAN SWIFT 487
" And now Good-night. The blessing of God the Trinity
be on you for ever.
" Yrs. affectionately,
" R. S. Hawker."
To Mrs. Watson.
"July 24, 1864.
" I do not like Politics in Sermons such as you describe.
How can it help a hearer towards Heaven or God to know
what Denmark or America are doing in the field of battle ?
Such themes degrade a Church into a debating Society or
a political Club. Our Blessed Lord carefulh' avoided all
such topics. When one came to him to discuss a point of
law about an inheritance he said ' Wlio made me a Judge
and a Divider ? ' And w'hen two political parties, The
Pharisees and the Herodians tried to entangle him in his
talk about the legality of a tax He gave out that sublime
saying ' Render unto C.nesar the things that are Caesar's, and
to God the things that are God's.'
..." I know well that since my last illness m\' memory
is not what it was. Names of people I utterh- forget, and
although in m\' illness I tried mx'self l}'ing in bed by
repeating passages and chapters in the Bible to ascertain if
my faculties had failed me I could remember all such things,
but the events of ordinary life escape me now. How can I
exi)cct the Machine to last uninjured ? M\' nervous tissue
like your own has been worn and harassed, and the fibres
of course wear out like the tracer}- of an)' other complicated
engine. God keep me sane in m}- mental j)owers. 1 h;i\"e
a terrible dread of losing power ox'cr my (jwn niind. Like
Dean Swift I ha\e a horrorof becoming 'a si)ectacle to men.'"
To Rev. W. \'alc)iti}u\
"July 27, iMr^.
" I ha\e been so ill — depression and want of appetite —
488 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
that I have had no heart to grasp the pen. My last calm
day was at Speke's Mill Bay, Hartland, where I drove your
Niece Fanny on the box, who took the reins the chief part
of the way thither and back, Mrs. Calcraft and Mrs.
Valentine in the Carriage and your Maud. You will
remember that one of your Nieces has blue eyes and one
black, and thereby you will understand the verses for the
day which I inclose. [' Blue Eyes melt : Dark Eyes
burn.']
..." We have had rather a filthy business here. While
I was absent, my miscreant Tommy Box, having found out
that a swarm of Bees had made honey in the Church Roof,
got two or three other rascals to accompany him, and with
a Bar of iron broke down a hole in the Roof, lighted a fire
to smoke out the bees and stole a great deal of honey. In
their wicked work they caught the Roof of the Church on
Fire, and being tindery with the long drought and no slate
but all wood the miracle is that the Church was not burnt
down. They actually returned to the Spot at Night and
made three attempts to carry off honey. As soon as I was
told of it I ordered Cann to send for Doidge the Policeman,
whereupon the only good of all the matter ensued. Master
Tommy absconded and I am rid of the rascal altogether.
A viler set of wretches was never hanged. But all was not
yet over. Howard the Miller, whose boy was one of the
party, arrived two days after with my short gun which he
found hidden under some wood at West Alill. Tommy had
stolen it from my little room and it is supposed sold it to
the Miller's boy.
..." Doidge has not yet been able to find ]\Iaster
Tommy at home to inquire about the Gun. His Mother
came up to ask me to forgive him and to take him back. I
told her it was God's deliverance from a Scoundrel when he
absconded. . . . ^liss Kuczynski would hardly believe that
AN ENCORE 489
the ' President' MS. was written by anyone older than 25.
Pray write : you know how I value the sight of your letters
in my repulsive Bag."
"Aug. 6, 1864
" My Dear Valentine,
" Your resolve to come down is the most pleasant
tidings I have received for a long while.
. . . "Johnny [Mr. Valentine's little son] is well and
wicked. He goes to Jane for anything he fancies and says
Hawker sent him.
..." Because I must use a twopenny stamp I inclose
another Photo. It may do for some friend. l^ut the one
done by Thorn in an attitude standing at my door sells very
fast at Bude.
" All here from Combe last night. Breachan and
Gladwys took them home. What do you think ? Johnny
was at afternoon Church in the Chancel with me, perfectly
quiet all the time of Service — on my knee while they sung
and when they ceased he said softly to me ' Again ! ' What
an encore ! "
To J. G. God'iuin, Esq.
" August xij., 1S64.
" Yesterday I went up to Kilkhampton for an hour. It
was a School Eeast. While I was there Maskell and his
Wife came there to call. He mentioned his Caxton. It
\vas a translation of the 'Speculum vitac Xti ' — I think He
got it for a trille and sold it to the Brit. Museum for /, looo
— the money to go to a Reh'gious House, Oucr\' the
Castle' at Bucle. .AIc\-ncll my Reviewer is tlicre and coming
\\\^ here. The ICvil f2ye again is at work here. One ot my
I'Aves (lied suddenl}- \-ester(lay and the Ram is taken ill."
II1C following lines, written while Miss Knc/ynski was
' Mr. Ma^kcll's h<,u>e.
490 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
away in London, have not before been printed. They, and the
letters to Mr. Valentine, show the new influence at work in
the Vicar's life. In spite of his emphatic vow that no one
should occupy his dead wife's place, his nature craved for
that womanly sympathy to which he had been so long
accustomed. He used to say that he married his second
wife because the spirit of his first wife rested upon her.
" August 12, 1864.
" Night falls ! the dreary Shadows creep
Between the Mountains and the deep :
The sunset rustles o'er the sky,
While here I breathe my Syrian Sigh !
" All dark ! but gloomier from the light
Just faded from my yearning Sight :
The violet eyes ! The violet eyes !
That gleam'd, a glimpse of Paradise !
"Ah awful hills ! ah shuddering Wave !
A living Death : a ready grave :
One only Star to soothe the Scene —
The gleaming Brow of dear Pauline ! "
These verses show the question that was absorbing his
mind — should he marry again ? All other questions,
money difficulties, were for the time forgotten. Man does
not live by creeds alone. The Vicar was fully aware of the
perils that might attend such a venture. " What a blessing,"
he writes to Mrs. Watson two days after the date of the
poem, " What a blessing to me that anxiety for Children
of my own is not added to my other terrors. I really think
madness would have ensued if I had only one Son or
Daughter to survive me. How could I have borne the
utter desolation that my death would bring to any one de-
pendant on me ? Depend upon it the isolation of Age is
often a Blessing in disguise. What is a tie but a link that
"TOO GREAT PIGS" 491
it would be painful to rend, and since the looser we sit to
the World the less it costs us to leave it the fewer fetters of
Relationship that bind us to life the happier we. ... I con-
template even Sickness and death with less anxiety because
I live and suffer alone."
To the Rev, JV. Valentine.
" August 15, 1864.
" Mv Dear Valentine,
" It is seldom that you fail to repl}^ but two
letters of mine are not only unanswered but in your letters
to Combe ^ you do not refer to them. In one I sent \-()U
two Photos, one of myself for any Yorkshire Sweetheart you
might select for me, and one of my Churchyard.
..." Now listen. My Clover Crop transcends any in the
County — heavy share nearly all Clover- — -tossed out of
Swathe by women behind the mowers — turned all next da)-
and morning of the 3rd day — saved in the afternoon,
carried into Rick green and complete!}^ made — so good
that it hardly shrank at all— at 5^^ a ton ^o£ worth of
hay. Well, 12 acres best barley in the Parish, a score (jf
Bags, i.e., 40 bushels an acre. Wheat wonderful. Now
mark. No manure bill — not an oz. of Sand. Whence
these crops? The land used to be let for 60 )ears at 10 o
an acre. Whence I sa)- these cro[Js ? 'Sly two ploughs in
one furrow ! Whereby I win e\cry advantage of the
Steam-plough and of spade trenching, for I literall)' trench
with the ploughshare. Yet how well I know the Cornish
Swine called in courtes\' l^\-irmers. If they see it done, it
they know m\^ profits ten times theirs, thc_\- arc too great
pigs to follow it. The\' say rightly ' Our Hi-erd ha\'c
always grabbed with their tusks and snout and so will we. '
' Mr. Valmtiiie's fan-.ily were stayin;.: ;.t CoombL' Co'-agc mulcr Miss
Kuczynski's care.
492
LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
" Dear little Johnnie is my sole companion. He will sit on
my knee for an hour while I am smoking, making imitation
puffs with his little mouth, as fat as a Doe and as frolicsome."
;*'The following Lines headed 'The Monthly MS.
Magazine,' were written in answer to a letter from Miss
Kuczynski : —
"A Violet in a lonely dell,
Type of the eyes I love so well :
A lily shrinking from the breeze,
Where teardrops fall from loving trees :
A linnet in her mossy nest,
That sings to soothe her own full breast :
These images of Flowers and Birds
Float by me as I read these words,
And teach my hand the fitting theme
Wherewith to greet each gentle dream.
Fair bloom the bowers tho' few be nigh,
And sweetest Song-Birds sing and die.
"R. S. H.
" Aug. xvij., 1864."
To the Rev. W, Valentine.
"Aug : 18, 1864.
' My Dear Valentine,
. . . "All well here and at Combe.
. . . "Johnny is not gone. How could I when he came
out to me sobbing softly, put up his arms to pet me, and
said ' Johnny stay.' They had been telling him he was to
go to Combe and he actually without prompting came to
me withdiis little grief What could I do but kiss him and
soothe him and promise he should not go away yet. It will
make me sob to lose my little companion, and you will not
grudge me a little longer your precious boy. I know how
awful is the responsibility but save when I am away from
home he is seldom out of my sight."
A CLOD IN THE FURROW 493
To Mrs. Watson.
"August 28, 1864.
" Our Harvest work is well nigh over — the wheat safe and
the bread of another year secured. It is a happy sight to
see so many stacks rising throughout the parish and to
know that God's gracious promise is fulfilled for this year
also.
" But I often think what heavy hearts there must be in
the gathered fields — the toiling labouring husbandmen.
They know well that the profit of all the increase is not for
them, that they must still drag on life and labour to win
their daily share of daily bread. There is not a clod in the
furrow so hard as a Farmer's heart. The very wages so
hardly won they pay with grudging hands and they
measure out the rates for the poor with strong reluctance —
2/6 a week for the Seven days food and clothing and fuel
of an aged woman or man. How they live at all is a
mystery. But they do and that cheerfully bring their
weekly penny for the club and look forward a whole year
to the Christmas bounty.
" My poor dear Wife used to find them out and
soothe and succour many a sinking heart that must
find her wanting now. I cannot do as she did. A
Man is helpless to do a Woman's work. But I must
not complain.
" I have been and I am very anxious about poor
Valentine. Mrs. Valentine is gone up to him and taken
with her one child. The rest are here with the Servants
and the Nursery Governess. It is heart-breaking to see
their little faces and to think as I do what one death may
bring to such a family. Life is a perilous thing at all
times but to a Father of five children and a Husband it is
indeed an awful responsibility. IIou^ Jiappy a fate it is to
494
LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
have 710 children. I think if I had only one Child it would
bring on madness.
" He writes to me to recommend the Children to my
sympathy and I who always take a gloomy view of things
I find the tone of his letter ominous of evil. God in his
mercy preserve him for the sake of the little faces that turn
to me when I call and ask what I think of Papa."
To J. G. Godwin, Esq.
" Sept. XX., 1864.
..." No thank you I do not take any interest in the
stonebreaking vascular minds of the men that meet at Bath.^
In Three recent Nos of All the Year Round ending with
last Saturday's you would find Three pieces of mine ' The
Eyes that ^lelt,' 'The Rushing Raven ' and ' The Queen's
Round ' for which Wills sent me ;^3-3-o with a request for
more. Thank you fof poor Pusey's spasm. It reached me
in mid-illness so I omitted to thank you. Thank you also
for the John Bull. I read nothing now but Papers and
Aquinas. Pray do write. I cannot rally."
To the same.
"Octr. viij., 1S64.
..." Great consternation at . \A\'s Curate pub-
lished on Sunday his own Banns with his housekeeper a
Woman who nursed him when a babe, a Widow (60) having
had 13 Children: one lives with her at the Vicarage. The
uproar is intense. Certainly it will illustrate but not fortify
the Article which rules that Bps Pts and Deacons may
marry."
To Mrs. Watson.
"Octr. 23, 1864.
..." One person is added to my list for pastoral care
and she a mournful instance of the fact that ' the Wages of
' Some scientific Conp:ress.
"ONE MORE UNFORTUNATE" 495
Sin is death.' She is a Dressmaker and a Mother of two
Children although never a Wife. She repented bitterly
after her first fall and abstained from evil until one of the
Farmers of the Parish again led her into guilt and her
second Child was his. And now that disease has assailed
her she is in a rapid decline, and want and misery arrive.
She is refused relief by the Guardians, both relatives of the
man, and threatened with the Union house for her dying
home. She is deeply and sincerely penitent now, but
although God will forgive her Man will not. How striking
it is to remark how the Gospel for the Day often sounds in
the Church like God's loud rebuke to some existing event
or scene. The hardness of heart shewn to this woman has
been the topic of conversation all the past week and to-day
I read the words in the Service for the day ' Shouldest not
thou also have had compassion on thy fellow Servant even
as I had pity on thee .-* ' I saw people look towards a
Guardian who was at Church and apply the words as it
were to him." [Doubtless Hawker emphasized the ' thou ' !]
"Novr. 13,1864.
"Mv Dear Mrs. Watson,
"Another lovely week — comparative health and
strength to fulfil duty. ' And what more could the Lord
thy God have done for thee than that he hath done ' was
Moses his question — but the rest of tlie verse is hardly
applicable 'Not one good thing hath failed.' Still amid
my many surviving blessings let me cease gradually to forget
those which I have lost. ]\Ian they say is woven of a three-
fold texture the Memory the Intellect and the Will. With
me the first is loaded v.ith sorrow and the two last weakened
with Years. Like you I acknowledge the want of some
one to ' manage and mend,' as the common people sa\-, but
I do not waiU what is implied in the term a wife.
496 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
..." I inclose also another letter from a rather remark-
able person in this neighbourhood, The Honble. Mark
Rolle, Lord Clinton's second Son, the heir and successor to
the famous Lord Rolle, of whom you when in Devonshire
no doubt have heard. Valentine brought down with him a
very fine and spirited mare which Mrs. Valentine is very
much afraid to allow her husband to ride, especially in
his present bandaged state. So she begged me to induce
him to sell her, and I accordingly have written to Mr.
Rolle who is Master of a Pack of Foxhounds in this
country, and his answer you see. I was glad to receive so
kind a recognition from a young Nobleman whom I have
not seen since as a boy many years agone when he came
with Lord and Lady Clinton to see the Painted Window
which Lord C. had given to my Church. It is pleasant not
to be forgotten even by the young.
"The other letter from young Mountjoy is also a satisfac-
tion. He and all his Family except the old man I lately
buried is a Dissenter and a Wesleyan. But he asked me to
patronize him, and through Charles Neate, M.P. for Oxford-
shire, with whom I was at College 40 years agone, I did
obtain for him a Government Nomination — he has passed
his Examination is appointed to a lower grade of Clerkship
but will travel upward if he behaves well and is now pro-
vided for for life — one more to remember me when he
visits my grave."
The beginning of the last letter contains an obvious hint that
the Vicar was again contemplating matrimony, a hint which
Mrs. Watson, with a woman's perception, was not slow to
understand. Hitherto he had evidently shrunk from ap-
proaching the subject with her. To Mr. Godwin he was more
outspoken. " I wish," he writes, " I could take Miss K. my-
self, but I have a horror of Lady House-keepers and I would
almost rather marry again. Do you think I ought or not.^"
CHAPTER XXII
Second Marriage — 1864
" I thought the quench'd Volcano's tide
Slept well within the Mountain side:
That Time's cold touch would still control
The warring Hecla of my soul !
" Why did we meet ? For me to learn
The ashes of my Heart would burn 1
That the dark flame at last would rise,
Kindled beneath those flashing eyes! "
When Miss Kuczynski wrote of Hawker that he had Hvcd
a Hfe made up of eccentricities, and at the age of twenty
had married a woman of forty, she httle thought, we may
be sure, what the next eccentricity would be : that at the
age of sixty he would take as a second helpmeet a young
woman of twenty, and that young woman none other than
herself. Yet so it came to pass, and the strange thing was
that, on both sides, it was evidently a genuine affaire de
cccur. Beneath all his weight of cares. Hawker kept alive
that boy's heart within the man's, which enabled him thus,
on the threshold of old age, to win the love of a girl young
enough to be his grand-daughter. What marvellous
vitality ! Consider, too, the effect which this rejuvenescence
had upon his verse. Hitherto there has been always a note
of melancholy, of wistfulness, and resignation. Now for the
first time he begins to sing of love, and with a freshness
and a zest that seem the inherent qualities of youth.
Witness the lines to the child Eva Valentine ; also the
2 I 497
498 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
charming little song, Shakespearian in its verve and felicity,
" Blue eyes melt : dark eyes burn."
" Ah ! safer far the darkling sea
Than where such perilous signals be ;
To rock, and storm, and whirlwind turn
From eyes that melt, and eyes that burn."
The marriage was not in the worldly sense a prudent one,
for either of them. Burdened as he was with debt, he
could not hope to make adequate provision for those who
should survive him. The disparity of age was the least ob-
jection, for Miss Kuczynski said, in answer to those who
urged it, that she would prefer ten years with him to a life-
time with any other man. Her wish was fulfilled : she had
just ten years of married life, and, save for the common ills
that flesh is heir to, they were ten years of unalloyed
happiness. But the letters must be left to tell their story.
He did not win his bride without a struggle.
" Thursday Evensong, [undated].
" Dear Miss Kuczynski,
" I restore your Hoofshoe which I have worn with
very great advantage. I found that- the Cross Town
Jettatura ^ had not her usual power over me as I rode
through : nor indeed did Carrow shy as usual at things seen
by her though not by me. I wore your skin also with much
satisfaction. The mesmeric effects are wonderful. I am
more amiable than I have been for long : so acute also
and so tentative that I quite envy you the possession of
such a Mantle of Elijah. But the oddest result of assuming
your vesture is that I am quite overwhelmed with a pro-
pensity to draw my pen and to shed the ink of Morwenstow.
I could even cross and recross this letter. I must write to
}-our Mother. Pray therefore send me her address and with
' Sally Found, a reputed witch.
A MOTHER'S BLESSING 499
very sincere thanks for the loan of the amulet and the
mantle —
" I am,
"Yrs. sincerely,
"R. S. Hawker."
To Mrs. Henry Stevens (Miss KuczynskVs mother).
"Nov. 17th, 1864.
" Dear Madam,
" I have not the happiness to be personally known
to you but the theme of my intrusion will amply justify it.
Ever since I knew her, a year and a day from this date, I
have fondly and unswervingly loved your Daughter Pauline.
It is true that I have not until lately asked her to become
my Wife, but it has been for this simple and sincere reason
that I durst not hope that a young woman with a Face and
Form to win an Emperor, a mind to comprehend the
Universe, and a taste and judgment congenial with all that
is great and good among men, would condescend to take
me as her Husband. But she has consented to make my
Home as happy as a Paradise by promising to enter it as
my Wife. She will tell you all her hopes and the likelihood
of happiness and homage from one so devoted to her
future life as I must be. But I could not fold her in my
arms as my Wife with perfect tranquility if I had not the
inestimable Shield of a Mother's blessing. Give it I en-
treat you to us and our Flome to your own dear Daughter
Pauline and to one who will become to you
"Your faithful and affectionate Son-in-law,
"R. S. Hawker."
To Mrs. \Vatso7i.
" Xovr. 27, 1S64.
"Mv Dear Mrs. Watson,
" Thank you for your kind and thoughtful letter. I
500 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
confided in your true and unfailing sympathy and it is a com-
fort to my bruised and wounded spirit that you are faithful to
me. You have rightly guessed. I have chosen my companion,
and one I think who will realize all the expectations I have
formed. But I am not sure that her friends will assent to
her becoming the Nurse- Wife of a sick man of my age.
She is not what is called pretty, but well-looking, not too old
nor too young — not 30 — economical to exactitude — kind to
the sick and poor, and I am told that the parishioners have
chosen her for me long ago and wished in their simple way
that Miss K. would have pity on the Vicar and go to be his
Wife. They know me well my habits and my wants and are
in their way as accurate judges and critics as one could
desire.
" But I am all this while confiding in what may not
come to pass. I spoke to her yesterday and while she con-
fessed a regard for me strong enough to induce her to be
my faithful wife she appeals to her Mother for that consent
without which she will not marry. No, No. I would not
marry any one who did not feel towards you the same
kindly love that poor Charlotte felt, nor will I give up my
letters to you for any Woman living. But I am sure that
she will only be too happy to add to my writing some of her
own. I do not expect w^hat is usually called love nor deep
feeling but only that companionship which in my dreary
desolate house I cannot live without. Now I will confess to
you that I have often feared and so have others also
that my brain would give way. If you could see me in
my lonely house shut in by the cliffs and Sea, with the
Church and graves the only objects visible from my door
and windows, with no relief beyond the bedsides of the sick
and poor, only some casual visitor by day and the winds
howling over the roof all night, you would discern that to a
man of my impulsive temperament and studious habits only
OBJECTIONS AND DIFFICULTIES 501
a kind voice would soothe me and a kind hand satisfy and
relieve.
" I would not have your love for me lessened for the World.
You have been truer to me than all the world and I owe
to you my Roof and Health. Give me then your blessing.
" I will not write more now. She is going to London to
see her Mother to-morrow and I can perceive that she doubts
being able to induce her to consent. So after all it may
terminate in failure. Gales around and over my house ever
since Friday Night. A Ship foundered off my Cliffs — all on
deck went down with her. Forgive my agitated hand-
writing and believe me in all fates and times always most
affectionately Yours,
" R. S. Hawker."
" I did not express myself clearly about leaving Morwen-
stow. I meant, if I do not obtain a Companion I must then
change my home. Here I cannot live."
To Mrs. Watson.
" Deer. 4, 1864.
" Mv Very Dear Friend,
" Ever faithful, always kind. And how keen and
far-sighted a true-hearted woman is. Every difficult}- you
sec. Every feeling you seem to guess. Yes Her Mother
does resist very strongly the marriage and I have just re-
ceived her resolve not to marry without that Motlier's con-
sent. Well I can but retreat into my former Solitude and
let the vision fade. Yet I thought to have been once more
happy. There was everything to blend with the living and
nothing to clasli with the dead. She is now in London witli
her mother and I hear every day. Besides llie disparity of
years her friends at once suggested that objection wliich
occurs to you — the frequent destitution of a C"!erg_\-man's
Widow. And as I scorn concealment I made a full revela-
502 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
tion of the state of my affairs and they say, and I cannot
contradict them, that to enter a home harassed by money-
demands will be but to increase my depression and forbid
the hope of health. Their stipulation is that I should be
freed from those liabilities which involve peril to my person
and peace and furniture and stock before they can sanction
the marriage. This is a stipulation so impossible that it
amounts to a final prohibition and I have written to say that
if this be insisted on as a preliminary it is tantamount to a
positive refusal and that the only course open to me as an
honourable man is to cancel the offer and withdraw. So
that in all likelihood the proposal is at an end.
" Conceive me here at my desk alone — not one voice in
the house — -not a single sound. All dark and as it were
hopeless — not one real friend on Earth save her to whom I
write. Now if this matter breaks off I must arrange my
future life. My plan is to do without any indoor Servant at
all and so save a considerable annual Sum. I really want
for my personal attendance no one and when visitors find
that I have no Servants they will relieve me of their
company. Cann my Warden comes every day to manage
the Farm, and my Old Man who has no encumbrance can
sleep in the house. I think this feasible and wise and in
carrying it out I shall have the satisfaction of applying every
year a Sum saved to extrication.
" I mean to set about copying all my writings for a two
or three volume Book for Parker the Bookseller and with
this compulsory occupation I shall sustain my mind. I
confess that I am so shaken by this gleam of hope and dis-
appointment that I shall be relieved by absolute solitude.
Valentine and his family go to Yorkshire in I\Iarch and thus
my Society will be withdrawn. I must make the Sick and
Poor my companions and them alone. Pray for me, my
faithful friend. You seem to know and I wish you to know
VENIT, VIDIT, VIC IT 503
all that passes in my mind. I have no other adviser or
confidante. But all as I suppose is over. Pray for me.
May God for ever bless and requite you in both worlds for
your truth to
"Yrs. affectionately,
"R. S. Hawker."
"Deer. II, 1864.
"My Ever Dear Mrs. Watson,
" I write in a state of extreme anguish. Pauline
is at her Mother's in London utterly overcome. She says
that her own love is fixed and her whole affection given to
me. I did not think I could have so gained the strong
affection of a woman again, but it is manifest, and now that
she knows all there can be no interested motive in her love.
I was very wrong to speak so strongly against marrying
again. Pauline came in such a singular way that it did seem
providential and now she is gone none other comes for me.
One good is come out of it — another trial of your friendship
and it has not failed me. God for ever bless you — my eyes
fill and my heart gives way. God bless you.
" Yrs. always affectionately,
"R. S. H."
Within the next fortnight the Vicar started off to London
to seek a personal interview with Mrs. Stevens. What an
effort it was may be gathered from the fact that for thirt\- \-ears
he had never left Morwenstow, save for one visit to Oxford
to take his ALA., and he had never been to London before
in liis life. Mowcvcr, lie went, he saw, and he conciucrcd.
Some amusing stories are tcjld of his visit to tiie mctrc^polis.
On tlie journev his brown hca\-cr hat blew awa\- as he was
looking out of the carriage window. Tradition relates that
he pulled the communication cord, and when the train came
504 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
to a standstill demanded that they should go back and pick
it up. The guard, indignant, threatened to prosecute him.
On arrival at Salisbury he sent for the station-master, and
asked, in his grandest manner,
" Where can I buy a hat at this station ? "
" We don't sell hats," replied the astonished official.
" Bless my soul," returned the Vicar, " What a benighted
place this is ! "
So he arrived at Waterloo, hatless, with a red handker-
chief tied round his head. He put up at the Great
Western Hotel at Paddington. While there, writes his
sister, he invited a friend, Lord Exmouth, to lunch. The
Vicar was dressed in his accustomed garb, fisherman's jersey,
wading boots and all, just as he walked about his parish.
Lord Exmouth went to the Hotel and asked a waiter to
take his card to a clergyman who was staying there. The
waiter said : "There is no clergyman staying here, my Lord."
" Oh yes there is," said Lord E., " he has written me to say he
should be here." The waiter said, " I assure you, my Lord,
there is no clergyman here ; there is an old gentleman in
No. " "Then take this card to him and tell him I am
here." Hawker came down and, amid roars of laughter. Lord
E. said, " I am not surprised the waiter should say there was
no clergyman here." Hawker said, "No doubt you would
rather see me dressed like the waiter with a black suit and
white choker ! I've felt obliged to say ' Sir ' to him
already." During lunch they were kept waiting a long time.
When the waiter came Hawker asked him whether Job ever
stayed there : " Who, sir .' no, sir, I think not, sir ; do you
happen to know his number, sir } "
In his interview with Mrs. Stevens the Mcar's eloquence
prevailed, and he won her consent to the marriage. In
view of his advanced age there was no reason for delay.
On 1 8 Dec. 1864, he writes to his Churchwarden, Cann : —
WEDDING AT PADDINGTON 505
" My Dear Thomas,
" I inclose some Memoranda of things I wish to
be done at home. We intend to be married here on
Wednesday, go on to Oxford until Friday and then we
return home. I trust and hope to find all well. This is a
most sorry wretched place. It costs us ten Shillings a day
to go about in what they call cabs. Let Tom Lang deck the
Church as usual with Holly and Ivy. Let Mary make a
large and very good Wedding Cake : the currants &c. will
be at Crimp on Wednesday. Cakes for the Children on
Christmas Day."
The wedding took place on 21 December 1864, and a
short honeymoon was spent at Oxford. " Our Marriage,"
he writes to Mrs. Watson, " was as simple and unpretending
an affair as could well be arranged. We went in our
travelling garments to Holy Trinity Church, Paddington.
She was given away by her step-father Mr. Henry Stevens,
and her Mother and Mrs. Valentine, and a friend, were the
only witnesses of the ceremony. A cab took us to the
train and here we are amid the old faces and parishioners as
quiet and matter-of-fact in our Vicarage as if we had been
married a year."
He was glad to be at home again. " My own journc\- by
Train," he writes, "was to me a very wondrous event. I
breakfasted in this Vicarage and I dined the .same day in
London, having travelled all the vast distance in the Second
Class Carriage of the South Western Railway Company for
^i-17-O. This my second experience of Railways has by
no means increased my desire to move away from Morwen-
stow : on the contrary with all its cares and all its anxieties
and terrors there is no place to me like my own \'icar-
age."
His new hapj)iness had an immediate effect on the
\'icar's spirits. He regained his old huo\-ancy and phutul-
5o6 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
ness, and renewed his interest in literary work. On 28 Dec.
1864 he writes to Mr. Godwin : —
" You have been in our thoughts and on our lips once
and again ever since our return. At the Station [Oxford]
we met Jacobson who asked me what relation I was to his
old friend the Vicar of Morwenstow. Said I, 'his eldest
Son.'
..." Home about Two or h past in the morning. Re-
ception everywhere most striking. . . . Do pray tell us what
ripple if any on the Isis from our unknown keel. If you
want to know how I am, turn out Polycrates King of Samos
in Lempriere. Cur kindest regards to Mr. and Mrs.
Jackson, who seem to have been old friends of half a
century. Look out in A /I the Year Round for a Ballad
called ' Pauline.' I am going to coach up an Article on
Morwenstow Church for you for the O. G. \) Old Gentle-
man's] Magazine."
A week or two later he writes : —
. . . "The Bag is arrived with the Boots : they are very
beautiful. We look in them like the Bird Ibis which haunts
the Nile and is said to understand Arabic and to pray in
that language, standing among the Reeds with Red Shanks
glowing in the Sun."
For the next year or two, until the anxieties of fatherhood
began to press upon him, the Vicar w^as entirely happy. In
a letter dated Jan. vi., 1S65, to his brother-in-law, Mr.
Somers James, he writes : —
" My Dear John,
..." I send }-ou for your public usage a brief
history of my Wife. Her father was a Pole of noble rank
in his native country. He fought with his Countrymen
against the Russian Czar and was banished into Exile. He
came to England where he married a Lincolnshire Lady, a
HAWKER DESCRIBES HIS WIFE 507
Newton of the family of Sir Isaac, and by her he had two
Children, a Son who is now in a Merchant's office in
London and my Wife PauHne. He obtained a Position in
the Rolls Office and died young. His widow married a
Mr. Stevens an American whose mercantile career has been
shaken by the War. So when her future home became un-
settled and unsure, Pauline, who had been very highly
educated and is a W^oman of rare Talents and high Nature,
resolved to establish her own Independence by her own
exertions. She came to the knowledge of Mr. Valentine a
Yorkshire Vicar who had just bought Chapel and Dean from
Trood. The whole arrangement was preternatural. He
heard of the Estate by Chance — came to see it by unaccount-
able impulse — purchased it against my advice and brought
his family down with Pauline. I saw her in Novr. 1863.
You understand that I know a fair and graceful Woman
when I see her. I appreciated her Intellect and character
found her tastes congenial to my own and her accomplish-
ments such as fitted her for Society of the loftiest rank.
She was not then 21 — Yet I wooed and won her and she is
come to my Vicarage to rule and gladden my home and
me. When }'ou come to see her you will confess that I
could not have found in all the land one more suited to my
mind and habits of literary life. Iler manner and form are
perfect, Blue Blood in every vein, and altogether one whom
you might have called it audacity in me to seek to win.
Still I have done it. I have brought a born Lad}- to my
home and there you will find her. All my local friends
have more than welcomed her and all my relations whose
0])inioiLS arc of any value have rejoiced at my success. So
will you when \'OU knov\' Pauline and in order that \-ou ma}-
do so if }-()U do not come over soon we shall go to sec you.
Meanwhile send me some grapes, some Ikoad figs, and a
little smoked Salmon. I enclose stamps. Thank Sommers
5o8 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
for the Diary. It will be kept, though not by me. And
now, my dear John, Good-night. Among all our changes
one thing sits fast, our mutual regard — only enlarge it now
to include Pauline, who desires her kind love to her new
Brother-in-law and Cousin Sommers — Nephew ? "
"Yrs. affy.,
" R. S. Hawker."
CHAPTER XXIII
1 864-1 868
COLENSO AND THE ChURCH POLITICS — Mr. GLADSTONE'S
Speeches — Assassination of President Lincoln — Contri-
butions TO Magazines — Births of his Children — Cattle
Plague — Demons — Visitation Sermon — " Ecce Homo " —
A Whale at Morwenstow — Wreck of the ' Jeune Joseph '
— Abyssinian War — Irish Disestablishment.
After his marriage Hawker settled down again to the usual
routine of parochial life. During the next few years he
worked hard, with his wife's help, to increase his income by
contributing to London magazines. Though successful in
placing his articles, he did not produce enough materially to
improve his position, and after a time he became disheartened.
Along with these literary efforts there grew up in his mind
a vague idea of winning distinction in other ways. It was
the ghost of a belated ambition. In the long years that he
had spent at Morwenstow he had schooled himself to forget
those
" High hopes that once were mine
Of loftier verse and nobler line."
Now, perhaps, with a young wife, he felt as though the
world ought to be before him. But it was too late. In
1865 he writes in fun to Mr. Godwin, "I shall be glad if
you will urge in Oxford my appointment to the Headship
of Magdalene Hall. I wish to get it to hold with Morwen-
509
5IO LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
stow." Such an appointment would, in fact, have suited
him exactly. He loved Oxford and the Bodleian, and in
that atmosphere his great powers of oratory and conversation
would have found a stimulus and won the recognition they
deserved.
We now return to the letters.
To J. Soniers James, Esq.
" March viij., 1865.
" My Dear John,
" When King James the First asked one of his
Bishops which See he would prefer, Bath or Wells, he,
speaking broad Scotch, answered, ' Bauth an it please your
Majesty,' and from that very time the two Dioceses were
joined. This suggests to me the fit and proper reply to
your question as to which breed of pullets I should prefer,
Spanish or Minorca. I answer ' Bauth ' and you can unite
them as King Jamie did. Majorca is a Spanish Island or at
all events the breeds are similar if not the same. My MSS.,
* The Remembrances of a Cornish Vicar,' begin to appear
this very week next Saty. and will I hope be continued in
Successive Numbers ^ as I can write them. If we could
manage it we should very much like to visit you at Plymouth
as parts of the great show, but we must travel Incog : as
Major and Mrs. Binney near relations of the celebrated Dis-
senting Preacher in London. Remember these names. The
Broad Figs, &c., did not disagree with me last week. Have
you heard from Miss G. lately and how does she like her
new abode } The climate will, I should imagine, cure her
complaints.
[Mr. Somers James adds a note here saying that no figs,
&c., had been sent him, and that Miss G. had died some
time before !]
' Of All the Year Round.
ALL THE YEAR ROUND 511
" Do you know what became of the Balls Pictures ? Two
or three ought to be mine. They are of my Grandmother
when she resembled me and of the Doctor when he was a
promising boy. Will you see about my claim } Our kind
love to you both. You know the Proverb — ' bis dat qui cito
dat.'
"Yrs. affectionately,
"R. S. Hawker."
To J. G. Godwin, Esq.
"March 24, 1865.
"Your Box reached us in safety last night. All in it was
very welcome. I do not intend to smoke the Giant Pipes
full. . . . The result of your efforts to win reception for my
MS. is identical with my own for another Paper in ylll the
Year Round. I have had it rejected, the plea being the
very absurd one that similar wreck stories arc told by The
Uncommercial Traveller. You will recall enough of the
Crew of the Alonzo and the Corpse under the Rock to know
that these events are unparalleled in Europe. It does not
really annoy me that I cannot write down to the Cockney
slipslop of modern serial literature, but I see clearly, as I
have often told you, that in the modern scramble for L : S : D
I have no chance of a handful. Still I have other things to
be grateful for as I am."
To Mrs. Watson.
"March 26, 1S65.
" It seems peculiarly a time of change wherein we live.
And this reminds me of a very terrible event, to all tlie Clergy
at least, that has occurred in the last week. I suppose y(ni
arc even more fully informed of it tlian ni\sclf 1 mean the
Colcnso affair. The Supreme Court ot A]i]H>al, flic
Council of the House of Lords, has given Judgnienl. It
512 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
seems that Dr. Gray, Bishop Metropolitan in Africa, and
under whose authority every one supposed Colenso to be, had
condemned judicially the Doctrine and publications of the
recreant Bishop. But he appealed to the higher Courts and
now a judgment has been issued by which Colenso is released
from all former decisions and is free to teach and to write
what he pleases — indeed the result of the decision will be
that no Bishop will be able to enforce punishment or disci-
pline as it appears to me in any Diocese. A Man may now
preach almost whatever he likes and deny as many tenets as
he pleases and altho' his Bishop may disapprove and censure
he cannot deprive him of his endowments or revenue or
silence his voice. This is a mournful state of things and
one that will lead eventually to all kinds of infidelity and
doubt. Things have been tending to this point for a very
long while. It began when the Bishop of Exeter failed in
his attempt to punish Mr. Gorham, and several other Bishops
have been baffled since, till now the climax is reached. I
find that the excitement among the Clergy is extreme and
the effects of the judgment among the enemies of the Church
are regarded as highly satisfactory.
" To me it can matter little. I have lived aloof from all
parties in the Church and out and been contented with the
quiet life of a Country Clergyman, but I discern in these
legal interferences with the Bible and the Prayer Book the
germs of a great revolution in our Church. No one seems
popular unless he denies some doctrine or opposes some
discipline among things of old held sacred — nor is it easy to
stop the tide of doubt and denial once set free."
In other letters, written at various times, Hawker alludes
to Colenso, and these allusions I have thought it best to
gather together here.
In 1862 he wrote to Mr. Godwin: — . . . "Bishop
Colenso is I think Son of a Wesleyan Preacher in this
BISHOP COLENSO 513
County, and indeed Colenso is a multitudinous name in the
West, and all Children of Schism, No thank you I don't
wish to read his richauffi olio of mouldy heresy. Origen
refuted him when he appeared under the name of Celsus
among the Old Energoumenoi, By the' way, if you meet
with a portable copy of Origen contra Celsum libri viij et
ejusdem Philocalia Greek and Latin I should like to borrow
it. That which makes me mad is that I see the Miracles
and Wonders of Revelation received with reverent belief by
such majestic intellects as St. Augustine and St. Jerome and
then to be carped at by the unutterably debased minds of
this xixth Age, w^ho are really and literally incompetent to
criticise the Catechism of the Church."
Elsewhere he writes to Mrs. Watson : — " I sent you a
copy of the Athenceuni but I do not like the contents in
general. The Editor is I am told a Scoffer and a Sceptic
and so I should judge from the contents every now and
then. He is of the Colenso School as they call it. How
can such a Man as Colenso bear to die ,'* If he knows any-
thing at all he knows that immediately after Separation he
will stand nothing but Soul before the very Face of the
Lord Jesus. Having insulted him and denied his Godhead
upon Earth how will he bear to look on the Countenance of
the Son of Man .'' "
In 1863 he wrote to Mr, Godwin : — "Ours is a Church
of deportment without dogma or discipline. Colenso is a
sturdy Protestant but nothing more. His denial is of dates
and figures : while others deny tenets and abjure rites I
suppose he deems his negation as lawful as another man's.
When I was an undergraduate I remember that Hales in
Chronology and Hey in doctrine [were] in equal force of
negatives with this Man of Natal. But how should the
Scripture be exact in measurements of Time and Space .-*
These two are utterly unknown amid the sources of inspira-
2 K
514 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
tion. On Earth Time flows and Men measure it and count.
In Heaven Eternity stands still and there is no sense of
succession — former or latter things. Adam had a Dial.
God has none. In Heaven with all their knowledge they
cannot tell you what hour it is on the clock or what day
month or year."
. . . " I do not wonder at the lapse of the Young Men
amid the unanswered onslaughts of Colenso and others.
The truth is our Bishops and other Chief Captains have for
long years done their best to annul and annihilate authority.
The Bible cannot be enforced without the Church, and
when the Mother is repudiated who is to prove the Birth
and Parentage of the Children ?
..." Thank you for your inclosures. Nothing how-
ever can save Oxford. It is becoming more and more and
every day a mere husk and shell — pith and marrow gone.
I found to my great horror a Sunday or two agone that my
little Wilderness of Wellcombe was full of Colenso. The
Wardens had attended a Visitation held by Archdeacon
Bartholomew and he filled his charge they said with attacks
on ' a Bishop who denied the Bible ! ' So I had to preach
about their shameful ignorance of chronology in Heaven."
To return from this digression — the Vicar writes on 20
April 1865 to Mr. Godwin : —
... "I have sent off another MS. on the simplicities of
Wellcombe to Wills but from his silence I infer rejection.
I cannot help it, I am quite unable to copy the slipslop
Reporter and Police Style of the London Press. Twenty
epithets for a single noun and the vapid tasteless un-
grammatical kind of language that wins the favour of
Cockaigne. If I may not call a spade a spade I cannot
write at all. I have been writing Lord Palmerston. I want
him to make a friend of mine a Baron but I fear he will not.
When Dr. Macbride's days are numbered don't forget my
THE DEGREE OF L. S. D. 515
wish. Our Farm is our chief interest now. There every-
thing prospers. The Old division of Wealth used to be
God's riches and Man's. God's was the produce of the
Soil and flock and herd, Man's L : S : D. I usually
receive the first and miss the last — 34 lambs and 5 more
expected — Calves looming along the lawn — Crops promis-
ing— the Hut-down is in Barley. I find your small pipes
very good. I have only tried one big one once half filled.
..." How fully the Colenso Judgment verifies and fulfils
all I have said to you about the rotten state of things in
England and her Church."
To J. G. Godwin, Esq.
"April 1865.
..." I am fain to take another degree — do you think
that Oxford would grant it to me in succession to M.A }
It is that of L.S.D, I infer from the Ratting Leader in
the Times that Lord Derby is looming in the distance — if
so Jacobson even yet may be a Bishop and of Exeter. Tell
him I say so. Sell the German Bible for what it will make.
Pauline often wishes you were here to regulate my Books.
I told her of your horror at the state they were in. Is it
not strange that not one thing of mine can win admission
into any paper .-' My epigram ^ on Lord Derby's Homer
was refused by the Standard his own paper. What is
there repellent in the lines .'' "
To the same.
"April 27, 1865.
" We continue to have glorious Weather and wc get Sang-
raal Sunsets from the hut. I can easily understand how
uncongenial the Low Church atmosphere of In'ith must be
to you. We were at Clovelly yesterday — a miserable
' Printed in ' Cornish Ballads.'
5i6 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
dinner and not an atom of Fish. It is most striking, but
throughout the Coast of Cornwall every Seaport as it
becomes occupied by Dissenters is deserted by the Fish. I
could specify many, and the only Ports that are lucky in
their fishing are those that export every Fish to the Fasting
Countries e.g. Port Isaac, Mevagissey, to Spain and
Portugal. Strange tidings about Lincoln and a fierce
comment on the text 'Whoso sheddeth Man's Blood by
Man shall his blood be shed.' No living Man has caused
so many death-wounds as the Rail-splitting King."
To J. G. Godwin, Esq.
"May 5, 1865.
" My Dear Sir,
" I have to thank you very kindly for the parcel
of Latakia and your letter. Twice following you have been
the first to announce to us some of the terrible events which
are marking our Era and Times. Lincoln's Death at a
Theatre and on a Good Friday was a deed full of horror
but as a death no worse than the thousands of those bloody
slaughters which have desolated New York alone with
20,000 Widows. Only a King anointed with oil can
declare or levy lawful War. Every other Person so pre-
suming to shed blood inherits the guilt and doom of Cain
and violates the command 'to do no murder.' My
opinion of the American War has undergone no change.
There has been a murderous quarrel in the Servants' Hall
and no wise Master will ever interefere. The slang about
Slavery was long ago denounced and adjusted by St. Paul.
He met one day a bought Slave, Onesimus by name. He
converted, baptized him, and sent him back to his legal
Master, Philemon, and withal He wrote him a letter where-
in he tells him that he had restored Onesimus to his proper
place with an injunction that he was to be regarded thence-
HAWKER ON SLAVERY 517
forth not only as a Slave, but as a Xtian Man, a temporal
bondsman but with a spiritual and Eternal tie. In the Old
Testament God the Trinity ordains and ratifies Slavery as
an Institution of the Pictured People. In the New Test,
the Second Person of the Godhead adopts as his own
appellative a hundred times the name of Soi'Ao?, Slave,
altho' the Puritan translators corrupted that word into
Servant, a word, as significant of one hired for wages,
unknown to that age and generation."
7^0 the same.
"^My Dear Sir,
" May XV., 1865.
" On the principle that I should advise no one to
go into [the Servants' Hall while a row exists I should
counsel a friend not to enter New York or any Northern
State. Depend upon it they would ' smell the blood of an
Englishman ' and wreak their revenge accordingly. ' Unto
their assembly O mine honour be not thou united.' . . .
I had a letter from L' Estrange dated on board his yacht off
Penzance asking questions about my Church. In reply I
sent him a slip or two which I had by me and referred him
to Blight's Book for the Legend of St. Morwcnna. But he
neither asked nor did I give any consent to publish. But
is it not my universal doom .-' What I write is alwa)-s
deemed available for the Sale of other Books, never worth
a farthing for my own profit.
" For reasons
good and strong Will you
send me another packet of
Latakia as you did before
exactly."
5i8 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
To J. G. Godwin^ Esq.
" Morwenstow. May 23, 1865.
" My Dear Sir,
" At whatsoever time it will suit you best to come
we shall be most glad to see you. Gladstone does not seem
quite so sure of Oxford as he may imagine. Pusey's woolly
mind appears to cling to him, another justification of my
invariable distrust of the man. His involved clumsy tortu-
ous style always seemed to be symbolic of his perplexed
intricate mind. I had a strange dream or trance last night
wherein Dr. Morrell, Bp. of Edm. [sic] acted a conspicuous
part. I had searched out my list of Sangraals sent to see if
his name were among them before I opened your John Bull.
Therein I found a record of his marriage at Henley and
departure for the Continent. If you can ascertain the time
of his intended return and subsequent address I shall be
especially thankful to you. ' Down in Cornwall,' a name
chosen by Wills is in No. 314 oi A the Y R. I have sent
him another sketch of Old and Original manners on the
Tamar-side called ' Black John.' You remember the Por-
trait in my Drawing-Room. I am writing another Sketch
to be named ' Daniel Gumb's Rock,' a scientific stonecutter
and hermit of 1735 who dug out a cave on our Cornish
Hills and lived and died there. But it is most debasing to
have one's MSS. at the mercy of such a Man as Wills. What
about the Union Review ? I have had a letter from the
Editor (F. G. Lee) to ask for the ' Quest ' to review. And
now I have to reveal to you a great atrocity. In my article
sent last (down in C.) I had written a careful Section about
Birds — among other phrases my almost slang saying ' Ubi
Aves ibi Anqeli.' This paragraph however Master Wills
cut out. W^ell you may guess my wrath when I read in the
very next No oi A the Y R b. paper headed ' Birds ' and in
THE PROTESTANT PIC-NIC 519
the very midst of it my own words the very Phrase ' Ubi &c '
wherein I had condensed a theory of Ephrem Syrus years
ago but which Eph. Sy. never wrote — in short a paragraph
verbatim in my own language without acknowledgment but
inserted as part of another man's composition. I have
written to ask Wills and I will tell you his reply. Mean-
while I will write a Note to L' Estrange and inclose to you
to be sent to him thro' his Publisher to ask at all events for
a copy of his work and explanations. Thanks many for
Molitor, I shall condense it. How I do wish I could get
some position or other in Oxford and tenable with this — so
as to go up in term time and read."
. . . "Any news of' Morwenstow Church ' ? I should like
to see in Black and White the actual reasons that make the
Editors retreat from my MSS. There is not a line in it
untrue or that a Sincere High Church Man could shrink
from. But it is England Protestant all over. Deny what
you like and no one shall touch you. Believe one atom of
asserted truth and we'll drive you out of English Life.
What a Mess is that Pic-Nic called Protestantism, where
every man brings his own dish and eats it sullenly by himself."
To A/rs. Watson.
"May 28, 1865.
..." I have had an offer of anotlier Diploma for the
office of Local Secretary^ to the Socict)- of Antiquaries at
Somerset House which I inclose for your perusal, and
which I have accepted for the Term of Four years. TIktc
is no Salary attached to it but there are j^resentcd IJooks
which will come to my share and there is no expense
incurred not even of postage. I did not solicit it nor had I
any ambition of their notice but as it comes to me in
■ In tills capacity he was instnimcntal in saving fr(>m dotriictioii the eld
church of St. Levan, near Penzance.
520 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
the way it does it may have a meaning on my life and
destiny."
. . , [American afifairsj " What a fierce revenge the
new President Johnson appears to meditate on the Southren
Rulers. His Reward of a vast amount of Dollars for
the arrest of Davis and the other Chief Men seems most
bloodthirsty. And yet in a very short time each of these
men will be standing before a personal Judge — their bodies
left behind them on their Beds and they each of them a
lonely and a shuddering Soul. What will their thoughts
then be when they will recall their whole lives and every
event by a single effort of memory and have to render an
account of their deeds to a Just and Righteous God. And
that such men should cherish the purpose of shedding more
blood under a pretext of law ! There is One whom their
jargon cannot deceive."
" No one can fail to be shocked at the foul assassination
that has made Mrs. Lincoln a Widow, but in the Judgment
after death it will be remembered that there are 21,000
Widows in New York and that 20,000 of them were made
so by the War which Lincoln himself carried on and for
which he must answer in the Great Day. What rivers of
Blood have been shed in that unhallowed War, and yet the
great boast of the day is, how wonderfully Man is improved
in civilization in this 19th Century. Whereas I cannot find
in all history such a record of brutish inhuman Warfare as
our own days have witnessed."
To J. G. Godwin, Esq.
"^lay 27, 1865.
..." I wish Orby Shipley could read my MS. : he
might be convinced that it is too original to be confounded
with the current literature he mentions. I am obliged to
be content with Wills' explanation but it is ahuost the
LITERARY THEFT 521
coolest thing I ever heard of to expunge a passage from my
Article (the best in it) and then to use it unacknowledged
for another Man's paper. But this has been my fate all my
life. My own writings as my own are scorned and unre-
quited, but stolen by others found popular and useful.
Well, well, I must be patient as Issachar and stoop like an
ass ' between my burdens.' I do use the Alb and Cope and
St. Cuthbert's Stole always. I have got Froude's address and
I mean to write to him in a day or two. Letter from M.,
very kind and all the meeker for his affliction. . . Full of
kindness to Pauline, my standard now for friendship and
good offices."
To the same.
" June xvij., 1865.
..." I attended the Visitation on Wednesday at
Bude. . . At our public dinner not only did they all from
the Archdeacon downwards treat me with marked and
cheerful kindness, but the Dean Rural (Simcoc) in a kind
and happy Speech proposed Mrs. Hawker's health which
was drunk with acclamation. Nothing could be in better
taste or more cordial Sympathy than tlieir demeanour the
w^hole day — it quite roused me, for I am very proud of my
little wdfe and it did gratify me to see how they all appreci-
ated her."
To the same.
" June ix., 1865.
" Now how can my MS. [' Morwenstow '] be called local .-'
Every explanation I have given is of the Catliolic principles
of imagery and they are ap[)licable to all the CInirches of
England as to Morwenstow. Take one instance — the zig-
zag moulding that they call by a fine phrase clievron pattern
is I say the Ripple on Gennesaret the sea of siglis the Lake
522 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
of the Paraclete, and is significant of the Holy Spirit of God
couching- and gliding on the Water wherein we become
Children of the Font, Sons and Daughters of that Element
which is the Seed of God the Trinity wherewithal we are
begotten into the Family of God. And the Seal of the
interpretation is equally Universal Worldwide and Vast.
But the truth is unless I could create Readers with Taste
and Imagination I cannot expect to be understood or
appreciated. Hence the taste for the trite meagre low
writing of the present day. But I am weary of it all. I am
ready to write my fingers off to get pay but I cannot alter
my whole mind. Wills has inserted another article ' Black
John ' but cut out all my best parts and worse he has put
in some trash of his own as mine and made me talk
nonsense in the last paragraph. No one ever was treated as
I am on all hands. I only hope my load of troubles will
not weigh down the bright Spirits of my poor dear Pauline.
She has brought me health and happiness and when I hear
her singing like a bird it breaks me down."
To Mrs. Watson.
" 25 June 1865.
" The Clergy around all express their wonder how I can
go thro' my Sunday Work — Three full Services, sometimes
four, and such a ride as very few could bear. I must have
had a strong constitution. Budd always says that he seldom
met with stronger muscle than mine and tried too as it has
been beyond most men's. Thank God for long and
continual strength and shelter. What a life mine would be
if it were all written and published in a book !
" I had occasion to write to Lord Clinton about the
repair of his Chancel here, and his reply I enclose. He is
a fine Specimen of a Christian Nobleman poor in Wealth
but rich in mind.
"CHARGE, CHESTER, CHARGE!" 523
" If, as the prophets infer, all this fine weather implies a
Wet Harvest, it will indeed be a mournful contrast. But
depend upon it God's system in this world is based on
compensations. There is no misfortune so adverse but
something comes to make up for it, and no position so happy
but there is what the quaint old Writers call a ' Crook in
the lot.' "
Hawker used to say that conceit was the compensation
afforded to a fool. He would often remark, quite gravely,
as though it were a compliment, " So-and-so has plenty of
compensation," thereby puzzling those who had not the key
to his meaning, and to the secret amusement of the
initiated.
About this time his old friend. Dr. Jacobson, was made
Bishop of Chester. In a letter to Mr, Godwin, dated 22nd
July 1865, he says : —
..." I wrote to Jacobson on his promotion and began
my letter with ' " Charge, Chester, Charge ! On, Stanley,
on," were the last words of Marmion.' "
To the same.
" August 13, 1865.
..." I have said the Prayer for Fine Weather to-day in
both Churches in spite of the Queen's Chaplain Mr. Kingsley
who derides the thought that Man's Prayer can alter God's
decrees. Whereas we are tauglit in the Book that Prayer is
that condition which unless we perform no favour from on
high is promised. Ask—M\6. on that fulfilment of your duty
ye shall obtain. Seek and so ye shall find. Knock and
vohen you have done so the Gate of Mercy and Kindness
shall be opened for blessings to descend. Therefore Pra}-er
is the Key in the Lock of (lod's promises.
" Nothing can be kinder than Budd's demeanour to me for
many long }-ears and for any temporary advice to me such
524 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
as this he makes no charge. . . . But his chief advice I am
unable to follow. It is to keep myself very quiet and to
allow nothing to dwell in my mind. He little knows the
nature of my terrors and troubles. What a subtle and
intricate mechanism is the human frame — and mine the
most astonishing and fearful. A thought will often stab me
like a sword and a Fear or dread will thrill throughout my
bodily frame as if some one had struck me a blow. My
Grandfather and Father were both of the same excitable
temperament although not in so aggravated a degree.
To Mrs. Watson.
"Aug. 27, 1865.
"A Mr. Edrupp, Chancellor of the Diocese of Salisbury,
who was walking through Cornwall last week, called here
and we had quite a controversy. He said ' the Englishman
of the Nineteenth Century is a fine type of an Enlightened
moral man.' I answered ' I call him a dexterous Blacksmith
and nothing more, who murders his Wife in a fit of drunken-
ness and poisons his Children when they become a burthen
to him.' '
. . . "I am glad you agree with me in the value of herbs.
They were not created by God for nothing but each had a
purpose. ' Every herb of the field bearing seed behold I
have given it to thee ' are words of deep meaning. I always
keep a gathering of Elder Blossom and the ]\Iints and
Pennyroyal, commonly called organs ; and Wormwood and
Feverfew grow about my Garden. All my Parish people
confide largely in herbs and I have learnt a great deal
from them of their use — one is Agrimony, another Wild
Sage.
' This recalls Matthew Arnold's antidote to " our unrivalled happiness" —
'• Wragg is in custody ! "
SIR THOMAS ACLAND 525
To J. G. Godwin, Esq.
"Aug. 29, 1865.
. . . " I have sent a brief critique on Hodgson's
book to Lee for the Union Revieu. Perhaps he may
reject the Article as my Editors do, but I know it contains
Definitions and Illustrations of Time and Space unknown to
this vile and ignorant generation. Your prophecy of Pipes
is yet unfulfilled.
..." A visit from Mr. . A formal and weak man with
prodigious viscera. He did not depart until he had severely
taxed his gastric juice. He staggered away at Evening as
well as he could with a loaded Colon."
To the same.
"Sept. 24, 1865.
..." Sir T. Acland has sent another present to Mrs.
Hawker of a brace of birds and grapes. He does not yet
name the day of his visit. ... I shall of course be glad to
receive him ' one year more ' in his own phrase. He always
says it will be the last year and he has held that expression
full five years. He is wonderfully hale and hearty still, I
am told, and will no doubt take his accustomed walk on my
Cliffs. Thirty years ago he measured the height of my
tallest Cliff with a line and lead and Lady Acland held the
Cord at the top while he verified the length at the bottom
— and now he always goes to visit the spot whenever he
comes up.
"Your account of the Old Woman of 91 reminds me of
my own old people whom I found here and have buried —
no such lives now. One Couple had lived in married life
75 years. The Man died at 95, The Woman 93. The
Eldest Son decrepit with age tottered along leaning on a
Staff at the Funeral. She was the last of the Spinners in
my Parish that is Women who spin yarn with a wheel.
526 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
There is actually not one left in Morwenstow and in
Wellcombe only one and she 80 years old. She is spinning
however for me this year again the Wool from my Black
Sheep which I always wear. ... It is an interesting proof
of the wisdom of Old times and the weakness of modern
knowledge that they are compelled to return to the ways of
our Forefathers and their Herbs. In simple old Wellcombe
they seldom resort to a Medical Man but those despised
' Old Women,' as they are scornfully termed among the
polite, cure all manner of diseases with their Elderflowers
and Agrimony.
..." We are looking anxiously forward to the time of
dread and peril, [the expected birth of his child] and here
again Human aid is scanty and frail. . . . But God is close
by and in his very midst we live and move and have our
Being. What a thought it is that the very round globe we
dwell on rolls amidst the silent and surrounding touch of a
vast and boundless Spirit who enfolds us like the air or light
and is yet a Presence that is alive and conscious of every
existing thing. If not a Bird can die without its Heavenly
Father's knowledge are not we of more value than many
Birds } If we only make this a real image and idea in our
minds we can feel safe."
To Mrs. Watson.
"Octr. 22, 1865.
" Every sign indicates a severe winter. Snipes are come
in and my one October Woodcock which I have sent
annually for 29 years to the Bishop of Exeter has been
transmitted and acknowledged. But in his letter what a sad
change ! last year although in a shaky and indistinct writing
he wrote me a few lines in his own hand. But now he
dictates to his Secretary a kind and hearty letter and he only
has just managed to inscribe his cramped and all but illegible
PREMIER AND BISHOP 527
* H. Exeter.' He bestows his formal benediction on myself
and my Wife and on ' the unborn Child ' of which he con-
gratulates me as about to become the Father. It may be
and in all human likelihood will be his last communication
to myself, for in his 87th year and with all his bodily
faculties gone or impaired it is not likely he will survive
long. Yet see how inscrutable are God's decrees. His
great adversary in politics Lord Palmerston at 82 is gone
before him ! Lord P. used to say that he hoped he should
live to present a new Bishop to the See of Exeter, adding
that it would afford him more pleasure to nominate a
Successor to that Bishopric than he had ever felt in pro-
moting other Prelates. And in that evil Spirit of Gambling
which is so disgraceful in England I have heard that very
large bets at the Clubs in London have long been laid as to
which of the two, Palmerston or our Bishop, would outlive
the other. A cold carried off the Prime Minister after
recovering from another severe attack of Gout. What
strong excitement will now ensue in London and elsewhere
as to the new Premier. The choice appears to lie between
Lord John Russell and Mr. Gladstone. For my own part
I care not one farthing who may win or who may lose the
empty honour. Some one will take it who must needs die
and soon be as Water spilt upon the ground, as the Wisest
of Men wrote who summed up the whole of such matters in
a single verse — ' Vanity of Vanities ! All is Vanity.' "
To the same
"Xovr. 26, 1865.
. . . " I set down your restless nights to that dominion of
the mind over your Body which is the penalty of all sensi-
tive natures : your fibres predominate over tlie muscular
texture of your frame. I saw an explanation of tliis once in
a medical book. There is just over the pit of the chest a
528 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
cluster of nerves like the root of an onion called the
ganglions — a nervous centre. Therein Mind and body join.
When we have any depression of the spirits or a shock we
always feel it first there. In this point it is said Soul and
Body as it were meet, and thence fibrous ducts lead to the
Brain and all over the frame. Thoughts act on this knot of
nerves and thence travel upward to the Brain. The whole
Nervous System is like a woven garment worn throughout
between the Flesh and the Bone and thrilling in every fibre
with the Action of the Mind. Well might the Psalmist say
that we are ' fearfully and wonderfully made,' and it is well
that in God's Book are all our Members written."
" All Great Men and among them the First Napoleon were
unable to attain sound sleep from the thick-coming thoughts
— 'The written troubles of the Brain,' as Shakespeare calls
them. I never thought it a credit to the Duke of Wellington
that before or after a Battle he could always sleep soundly.
I (like you) am not strong in hope but prone to despond.
From a Child a coming event has always assumed to my
thoughts its worse aspect. I see as it were before every bad
possibility and I have suffered great anguish from events that
never happened after all. Mrs. Hawker is just the reverse.
She hopes all things and it is as well she should — poor Soul
— at this trying time. . . . God created Women stronger in
courage and resolve than Men because they have to endure
more and to go through what Men would shrink from. I
remember that Mrs. Kelly once said to me after the birth of
a child ' If Men had to bring forth Children the World
would not be half peopled.' I thought it a strong and singular
speech but it expressed what was in her mind. Nothing can
exceed the language of Scripture. ' A woman when she is
in travail hath sorrow because her hour is come but when
the Child is born she remembereth no more her sorrow for
joy that a Man child is born into the world,' I hardly like
BIRTH OF A DAUGHTER 529
to decide about a thing which is still in God's hands but if a
Son is given to us he shall bear my name but I must add
also the name of Pauline's Father (a Polish Noble). He was
called Vincent Kuczynski."
During this anxious period the Vicar composed and used
the following Latin prayer : —
" Ave Maria ! Gratia plena. Dominus tecum. Bene-
dicta tu in mulieribus et Benedictus fructus ventris tui
Jesus! Ora, Sancta Dei Genetrix, pro Uxore mea dilectis-
sima Paulina Hawker. Ora, te obsecro, ut per interces-
sionem benedictam tuam infantem nostram sine dolore,
sine poena, gignere possit. Da mihi haec beneficia pro
signo atque in memoriam quoad Deus in gremio tuo
vocatus est Jesus. Amen."
[" Hail Mary ! full of grace. The Lord be with thee.
Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of
thy womb, Jesus. Pray, Holy Mother of God, for my be-
loved wife, Pauline Hawker. Pray, I beseech thee, that by
thy blessed intercession she may without pain or penalty
bring forth our child. Grant me these benefits for a token
and in memory that a God upon thy lap was called Jesus.
Amen."]
To J. Somers James, Esq.
"Novr. 28, 1865.
" My Dear John,
" Last night just before midnight I heard the first
faint feeble cry of my Daughter Morwenna Pauline — a
lovely gentle little maid — you will understand our great
delight. I am very much obliged to Sommers for his kind
present — the most useful thing I fill up. [It was a pipe.]
He shall lose nothing by it, for I have determined to bring
him in for the borough of Gooseham in this parish, I must
2 L
530 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
postpone announcing the Birth of our Boy till another time
— Our Kindest love to you all.
"Yrs. affectionately,
"R. S. H."
To Mrs. Watson.
"Deer. 3, 1865.
. . . "After a time when the Nurse had got it ready I
went in to see the Mother and the Babe. It was and is
without my natural partiality a very lovely child. My
Forehead curved and high, my ears which have that singular
peculiarity no lobes : the lower part of the ear slopes down
to the side of the cheek without any lobe. The Duke of
Wellington had ears of this shape, and, I hope I may say it
without impropriety, although there are few to whom I
would mention it — you of course the exception — you trace
this feature in all the accurate pictures of our Lord from the
Vera Effigies or exact likeness handed down from Ancient
times. But to return to my Baby. Her eyes are a dark
blue — Nose mine again — lower face lips and chin her
Mother's. Her hair, which is for an Infant abundant, is
soft and light — golden as mine when a boy. She has
double-jointed thumbs turning back when she moves them.
This is from her Polish blood. Her Mother inherits the
same thumbs from her Father. . . . Every one in the Parish
has been quite excited with kindness. The Ringers asked leave
to ring one peal but no more from the closeness to my house
of the Tower. ... At Church to-day I have been quite
besieged with congratulations but mingled like yours with
regret that it was not a Son. Well, a human life begun in
my house and that will be prolonged into the far depths of
Eternity is an awful joy. I cannot help picturing my Baby
at the future age of 10 and 20 years encountering it may be
the trials and the anguish of a mortal existence and closing
PLUS A BABY 531
life at the last with remembrances of sorrow and pain. Yet
she may by God's marvellous mercy do well and find friends
as her Father has done and pass away from this Earth to
stand and minister before God in Heaven. To look at her
now as she lies on her mother's breast drawing the sources
of life and strength, no one would think that a thing so frail
could live through all the chances and changes of this
miserable world. Then comes the thought that for us men
our Blessed Lord one of the Trinity became a human babe
upon an Earthly Mother's Knee, and it was to honour Child-
hood and Manhood that a God upon a Mother's lap was
called Jesus."
To J. G. Godwin, Esq.
"Deer. 4, 1865.
"The Oxford Panorama exhibits singular Figures and
Scenery. But the thought will arise as the Characters cross
the Stage ' Are these Men really Deans and Canons and
Bishops or do they perform the part of hire .>' .Are they
Masks or Men .''... We are in every respect as we were
plus a Baby.' "
An old parishioner, asked whether Mr. Hawker was
not a very proud father and fond of his children, pausing a
moment to think of an emphatic phrase, said, " There shudn't
so much as a fly pitch upon mun, if he cud a help it, in that
kind of a way, you knaw. Sir."
To R. A. Mou7itjoy, Esq,
Feby. v., 1866.
. . . "You are in the midst of a worrying worlci of
Politics and Men, and the opening of the great Mindspccch
(Parliament) of England is your great event of this week. My
own rustic interpretation of public events differs soincwliat
from a Londoner's thought. E.g., When tlie Sinners at
532 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
Gadara were occupied by Demons they lost their swine who
all perished in the Sea. In like manner the Demonism of
England is me judice punished by the Cattle Plague, as
preternatural a scourge as the murrain of ancient days in
other sinful lands. The Ministerial Measures for Reform
among animals or men are not likely to be comprehensive
or satisfactory. Gladstone is an adroit speaker and a
dexterous man, but his mind never seems to me able to
embrace a vast principle or a w^orld-shouldering plan. Lord
John Russell has been all his life a morsel-minded Minister,
and was never so well pourtrayed as by Punch who shewed
him up as the Boy who chalked 'No Popery' on the Shutter
and ran away. He may use the catch-words of a Party, but
he will always shrink from consequences that imperil himself.
I should advise you to go as often as you can to the House
of Commons, saying Virgil's [He means ' Horace's ']
words — ' Haec olini meminisse juvabit . . . forsan.'
" We are surrounded by Shipwreck and Storm. Things
of value, cotton bales, chests of tea &c. float ashore, and
fragments of lost vessels, but thank God no corpses yet. I
have suffered so much from their burial in former times that
I hear in every gust of the gale a dying sailor's cry."
To Mrs. Watson.
"Feby. ii, 1866.
"I see by the paper, and a Times sent by Godwin is full
of it, no topic is touched in the New Parliament but the
one great Terror the Plague among the Cattle. It is creep-
ing still nearer to us, and one thing said in the House of
Commons struck me with panic. Padstow where the
disease rages is within 20 miles of us by Sea — and from my
Cliffs this place is the most prominent object in the Sea-
view. I often see Ravens and Buzzards and other Birds of
prey winging their homeward flight at Evening from the
THE CATTLE PLAGUE 533
Padstow Cliffs to my own where they roost and breed.
Well, one of the members said that Birds would feed on the
reliques of diseased cattle buried carelessly and then carry
the infection in their feathers and beak and talons Leagues
away. What shall shelter us from this danger .'' There
may be at this moment a piece of infected flesh brought by
a Bird 200 yards from me while I write. Ravens are the
chief birds on Hennacliff my tall steep bounding my Glebe
450 feet high, and you remember Ravens carried Bread and
Flesh to feed Elijah every day and brought it a longer
distance than from Padstow to my glebe — namely from the
Altar of Burnt offering at Jerusalem to the brook Cherith
beyond Jordan where Elijah lay. Is not this a striking
source of dread .-*
"We have had a terrible event connected with this same
Padstow. A Vessel of this Port was found at Sea water-
logged with a Man seen in the Rigging. This proved to be
the Captain a Cornishman well-known on this coast. He
was taken off nearly dead and he had been 28 days without
food ! Five of the Crew dead were found below in the
Ship."
To the same.
"Feby. 18, 1866.
..." For myself I must die in harness. I have fought
the battle so long here by the Sea that I must not desert
my Ranks, although I feel often that I could have filled a
better and higher post with honour. After all the total time
of human life is so short and fleeting when compared with
the hundreds of years we shall count in the next State of
our Existence that it does not matter much where or how
the threescore years and ten ma)- glide away.
. . " You ask about my living and its value. You have
forgotten but I sent you a statement some years ago. My
534 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
Tithes were commuted into a Rent of ^365 a year gross
value. This is lessened by Rates and Taxes ;!^ioo a year.
This brings it to ^265. Then the averages and Insurances
bring it down to ^180 net, and this is all that comes to my
actual hand. Then there are Clubs (Charities) and Sub-
scriptions that no one can avoid, ;£"io a year more : add to
this my School ;^5 or £6, and you will see that the burthens
on a Country Living reduce it to a small amount. If it
were not for my Farm I could not manage at all,"
The following letter, written three years later, shows that
his income had then still further diminished : —
"April 4, 1869.
*' My Dear Mrs. Watson,
..." My Gross value of Rentcharge and Glebe
is £z^S. Out of this is deducted first 10 Per Cent for the
Corn averages which vary every year according to the price
of Corn — they amount now at the 10 Per Cent to iJ"3 3-6-8.
Next are to be deducted Land-tax Poor's Rate Way rate
Court fees at Visitations, &c i^ 109-0-0 : then the £^0 a. year
I used to pay for Policy of Insurance up to 1863 is now
augmented to ^^"78-1 0-0. These deductions altogether come
to ^220-6-8, leaving £14^ clear out of the Gross calculation
and from this at least from £^ to £^ a year is lost by bad
debts ! The increase in my Policy is because I insure age
against age and therefore since 1865 I have had to pay
more. My resources are also decreased since then every
quarter. No I have never made things worse than they are,
God forbid ; nor is there any need : they are bad enough,
I confess I did not expect to have had children born to me
but God has sent down to each an immortal Soul and he
has reasons known in heaven why they are born or it would
not be. So I am bound to welcome God's image in the
INCOMES OF THE CLERGY 535
harmless face of each Httle child and I think that their
Father in Heaven will not forsake them.
"You may forget it but I have sent you this statement of
my Income before. It is not my case alone. The out-
goings of the Clergy are so shameful that Mr. Gladstone has
promised to appoint a Committee to inquire into and
alleviate their terrible case and it will be done this year.
In justice and equity our Rentcharge ought not to be taxed
at all. The Landlords' Rent is free and he has 9 parts and
we have one. So every Clergyman's Income is only
nominal. If a fair research and equitable arrangement en-
sue we shall be relieved. Many Rates such as Police and
County Rate are called Poor Rate and levied on us."
To Mrs. Watson.
"March 4, 1866.
" England has never prospered at home or abroad for
many years, & the only sign of what is called success is that
Mercantile Men amass large fortunes by demoniac help &
call silver and gold prosperity. Whereas as the Great
Demon told our Saviour upon the mountain ' All these are
mine & to whomsoever I will I give them.' All things
seem to announce the End. Any rational Man would
desire to be one of the last generation who will witness alive
the close of time. The last Men we are told by St. Paul
will not die but will undergo an instantaneous change in a
moment in the twinkling of an eye & these will see the Son
of Man coming in the East among the Clouds for Judgment.
It will be a Scene worthy the gaze of mankind. I some-
times fancy the ground in my own Churchyard unclosing &
the Bodies of the Dead standing up from their graves while
the Earth falls from their shoulders crumbling down. ' But
who shall abide the day of his coming & who shall stand
when he appearcth } ' This is a question we all ought to
536 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
ask at such seasons as this. If one of the arisen dead in
the Churchyard were to turn to another & say ' Hast thou
any money ? ' what a shout of derision would ensue ! "
To J. G. Godwin, Esq.
"March ix., 1866.
" With regard to Gretser I think you had better send it
back for me to copy what I want and then you can have it
again. When I translated it it was not without a purpose
of making it one day serve for publication. It is the only
English rendering in Existence and is of course of great
value. It took me a whole Winter and there are notes of
my own. I believe ' Daniel Gumb's Rock ' will be in this
weeks A. the Yr. Rd. I have nearly finished another —
' Antony Payne the Cornish Giant ' and another, ' Philemon
of Colossae ' ^ on St. Paul's Epistle with that Inscription. .
This and copying for the Vol. absorbs us both. Poor
Whewell ! I often wonder and am grateful that with all
my Falls on Horseback I never yet broke a bone.
Chambers has sent me 30/- for my three Ballads in the
' Book of Days.' He wanted the Copyright for that Sum,
I refused."
To Mrs. Watson,
"March nth, 1866.
..." Now ensues the uproar about the New Reform
Bill. People have it seems found out that to enable a lower
class of persons to have a vote will be a panacea for all the
evils of the land. It does seem infatuation. Lord John
Russell at 75 is soothed and satisfied with being Prime
Minister when most people would be thinking of making
ready for another life in the midst of the Angels of God.
" We are to keep Friday the 23rd of this month as a day
' This, apparently, was never published, and the ms. is lost.
SATAN'S REVENGE 537
of Fast and Prayer for rescue from the Plague. It is most
absurd. In this Diocese there are four different days for as
many different Deaneries. No King in Israel. No Bishop
able to direct and all is left to the lower Authorities, hence
diversity and discord.
" Sir T. Acland is better. His Son Leopold is made
Canon of Exeter in the room of Archdeacon Bartholomew
who is dead. When people wonder that the Bishop does
not prefer me to any higher rank in the Church they are
not aware that years ago he talked to me about it and I
assured him that it would not be possible for me to leave
Morwenstow. Nor could I on any of the usual chances of
preferment."
" March 25, 1866.
"My Dear Mrs. Watson,
" A sad misfortune has befallen me on my Farm.
On Friday, Fast day, I took for the lessons the First and
Second Chapters of Job and preached on his history. I told
the people that Job was a Rich and prosperous Farmer with
many Flocks and Herds. He was proud of them and it
pleased God to try him by chastisements. He did so by
allowing the Enemy, the Demon, as he is called by St. Paul,
the Prince of the Powers of the Air, who smote his Cattle
with Storm and Lightning and destruction, just as England
and her herds are now smitten by Plague. As the Evil
Angel was allowed also to smite the people in David's time
when he numbered them for pride and boast. Tliis was llie
scope of my Sermon. A Man or a Peo[)le offending (kxl.
The Enemy allowed by God as his Scourge to slay. While
I was in the pulpit so violent a hurricane broke over tlie
Cluirch tJKit I referred to it and said 'Such a Grc;il Wind
tlie Adversary of Man was permitted to arouse ami ihercwitli
to crush down the house of Job.'
538 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
" We came out of Church and I went on to Wellcombe
— the Storm increasing all the way. I preached there the
same Sermon and the people all the time were looking up
at the quivering roof of the Old Church expecting it to give
way. I returned in terror. The Wellcombe people offered
to go with me and to walk two of them at my side. But I
refused. Twice my Pony turned back unable to face the
Storm and Hail and Rain. On coming home I changed my
clothes and went to Church again at Four O' Clock. I
preached on David's Sin, 2nd Book of Samuel 24 Chapter,
and the doom wrought by the Evil Angel. While we were
in Church the Hurricane struck the Roof and Gable Wall of
my Barn and full half the Building was one Mass of Ruin.
But worst of all, in the Shippen under the Floor of the Barn
my Sheep and Lambs had been brought for Shelter and the
Fall of the Wall on the Floor shattered it quite down and
crushed to death Four of my best Ewes and one Lamb.
My Barley prepared for Seed was heaped on that part of the
Floor and all except four Bushels was scattered among the
ruins below.
" It was the most unaccountable misfortune that ever
occurred in the Parish by Storm and has created a great
sensation. The sympathy of the people is strongly ex-
pressed. My text in the Morning was Job the First Chapter
20-21-22 verses. Was it not at all events a strange co-
incidence } I felt all day a sense of this thought : — I am
exposing to shame and rebuke the Enemy of Man and
proving him to be the Author of Evil. He may wreak his
Revenge on something of mine, as He was suffered to do
with God's Servant Job, but he durst not touch his life,
neither will he touch mine, and this made me confident amid
the real danger of my w^hole day's work nor did it make me
flinch in a single word. You remark, because God loved
Job Satan hated him, and although God allowed him to be
DEFINITION OF ELOQUENCE 539
tried it was his purpose all the while to bring Good out of
Evil, and when he had ascertained the patience of his
Servant he made the latter end of Job more blessed than his
beginning. Nor is such an accident as mine a sign of God's
displeasure. Whom he loves best he tries most and I have
always regarded my trials in life as the touch of a Father's
hand on the Shoulder of his Child to keep him in the straight
and narrow way that leadeth unto life. You may well guess
that I have no room for other thoughts at this time. I
omitted to say that one short half hour before the building
fell my Old Man and a Neighbour were standing among the
sheep on the very spot where the Ewes were crushed and
left it to come in to Church."
To R. A. Mountjoy, Esq.
"5 April 1866.
" I am very glad to hear that you avail yourself of the
opportunities which London affords of hearing popular
speakers and watching the mental achievements of men who
develope the mind of the Age. Kingsley was not born an
Orator, and Birth only, not education, can bestow that Endow-
ment. I knew him as a Youth and I have watched his
subsequent career, and I should define his character in
one slang word ' Nosey.' The gift of real eloquence is
exceedingly rare. It consists of ' Noble and Natural
thoughts 7ittercd in graphic and graceful language.' If
you apply this definition as a test to any speech or Sermon
that you hear it will always enable you to supply a test or
standard of perpetual judgment. The great mass of Modern
FLnglish Oratory will fail to satisfy this trial. Its thoughts so
far from Noble are common-place and meagre— so far from
natural they are far-fetched and forced — so far from Grai)]iic
that they never make a notch in the memory or become
phrases to fascinate and instruct future generations, and so
540
LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
devoid of Grace or Beauty that they are forgotten as soon
as heard. This is my own opinion of what is termed Glad-
stone's Eloquence. It appears to my ear always like an
incontinent flow of words which slip over the mind like so
much verbal slush full of sound and echo but signifying
little. I don't know one phrase of his utterance that has
ever become a proverb in the English language or a catch-
word to embody and recall a great thought. When his
speeches are printed they contain so many lines, so many
long sentences, so many words — and there is their total
history. The flesh and skin of a speech is there but there
is neither blood nor bones. Nearly all popular Sermons are
of similar kind. If you want to analyse a speech or discourse
or to make one yourself ask these three questions : — i. What
is the Fact .-' ij. Why is it so } and iij. What follows from it .-'
and the replies to these three queries will always convey to
you the pith and marrow of the whole matter. Take as one
instance St. Paul's Epistle to Philemon. What is the Fact .-'
St. Paul having converted and baptized a Black Slave named
Onesimus sent him back to his master. Why ? To reveal
that God had created one to rule and another to serve — that
Baptism did not annul the bondage, that a Xtian Master
should now deal with him as a Xtian Slave — their union
would be for ever. What follows .'' When Slaves nowadays
are instructed and baptized and their better treatment assured,
send them back like Onesimus to a Master."
To R. A. Mountjoy^ Esq.
"May I, 1866.
" I suppose the excitement of the London mind is intense
and intestinal at this time. Statesmen always like that some
one great question should be under discussion and never
(for long at least) finally adjusted. This fastens into one
point the fibres of the thought among the commonalty :
CARLYLE'S GLASGOW SPEECH 541
withdraws the interest from other troublesome topics and
suppHes mental pabulum for the ^ Fceces Romuli.' Of this
kind were the old ' Catholic question,' ' Protection and Free
Trade,' more recently 'Reform.' So necessary are themes
of such sort to absorb and occupy public opinion that if they
do not arise naturally a wise minister would invent them.
Not one M.P. in twenty cares a simple farthing for Fran-
chise or its increase, nor do many regard the grant or the
restriction as of the slightest import, but they know well that
they have each a part to perform and a place to keep, so they
fret and fume and jabber and ' each man in his time plays
many parts.' But the true history of nearly all Parliament-
ary Performances is ' It is a tale told by an idiot, Full of
sound and fury signifying nothing.' Did you read Carlyle's
Speech at Glasgow "i It was a Sermon on the old axiom
'Speech is silver Silence is Gold.' Four men in the
Commons made good utterance, Bulwer Lytton, Lord
Stanley, Lowe, and Mill (John Stuart). Each of these
fulfilled their dramatic functions very creditably.
" I hope to hear from you the London news."
To J. G. Godwin, Esq.
"Mww. May i., 1866.
" Mv Dear Sir,
" Great events have occurred since last we ex-
changed remarks. The fatal five in Gladstone's majority
among them. The whole impression which I gather from
the debate is that no one except the Birmingham levellers
appears to be in earnest. Lytton Bulwer has notched the
memory with several deep indentations. Lowe has certainly
uttered himself very strongly and given impress of power.
He must again be called W'hiteheaded Bob, and Stanley
and Mill have sustained their parts. But the giants afore-
time, the Mighty Men that were of old, the Men of renown,
542 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
where are they ? And Echo answers * where ? ' How very-
few Proverbs have been added to the Wisdom of Solomon
by English Men. I turn from these trivial topics to those
of graver import, our animals and Birds. Poor old Cow-
slip has reached her last days. She lies down and cannot
be got up again without help. Two more Calves are
added to our herd and another expected every day. Our
Poultry flourishes — Gallinas that lay valuable eggs. Hens
sitting abrood — 12 or 14 eggs every day. . . . We have a
Turkey hen and an old Goose with three Goslings. She
sate on 15 eggs but 12 failed, it is supposed from excite-
ment about Coleridge's Oxford Bill. ... I dined at the
Archdeacon's Visitation on the 24th of April. After
dinner and the healths of Church and Queen and the
Bishop, the Archdeacon (Wm. Phillpotts) proposed in a
kindly speech Morwenna Pauline Hawker and it was drunk
with Acclamation."
To R. A. Mountjoy, Esq.
"May ij., 1866.
. . . "You see All the Year Round. I send up to the
Editor a Ballad on a Knight of old days. Sir Ralph de
Blancminster, a Crusader, and when you read it you will
recognize the scene. It will worry the Trustees for the
Church and Poor of Stratton. Gladstone has brought in a
Church-Rate Bill of which I will only say that it is adroitly
conceived and that no Man of High Genius ever had a
dexterous mind. I, as you know, am the only Clergyman
in this Country who supports a Liberal Member ^ by vote,
altho' my Friends are Conservative. I do not therefore
speak Politically but as I hope an honest Man, and I see in
' In 1868 he writes, "I have no Radical or Liberal tendencies in my
nature. So far as taste and judgment go, my mind is cast in the Old
Conservative mould."
GLADSTONE'S CHURCH RATE BILL 543
this New Bill a measure to add ;^250,ooo a year to the
Agricultural Income of the Landlords. It will embitter
every existing difference. How Samson's Hair has been
sheared away. I am told that Gladstone's manner and
language of late have seemed quite paralysed. Thus
Conscience doth make Cowards of us all. They used to
call England a Monarchy. I have lived to see it a vast
Republic. The Queen as it were Member for Windsor
and Clerk of the Parliament, compelled to trace her
Signature whensoever called on by the Houses but with no
power of refusal — devoid of all influence even to promote a
Clerk in a Government Office. The Prime Minister for the
time is the virtual King of England. He rules so far as
personal Rule can go.
" P.S. — Sad news since I began to write; the Panic in the
London Money Market is felt even here and by myself.
Strange that a distant War in Europe should have power
over this Room in the Rocky Land wherein I write ! "
"May 20, 1 866.
" My Dear Mrs. Watson,
" I have ridden to-day in the loveliest weather of
an English May. The Birds in Wellcombe Wood have
sung their sweetest Song, and when I tell you that, besides
the usual Thrush Blackbird and Finch, I rouse as I pass
along Ringdoves Gold and Green W'oodpecker the Water
Ousel and the Heron you will understand what an Aviary
we have here in the Wilds. I thought to-day how }-ou
would enjoy a W^alk in such a scene.
. . . " And now let me announce a vexation which has
arrived to harass mc altho' you will scold mc for calling it
one. The Bishop has nominated me lo preach the \'isitatic>n
Sermon at Launceston on the 5th of June. Vou may
wonder that I should dislike it but when I tell \-ou that I
544
LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
have hardly ever preached except for my poor Father out
of my own Church and that I have never sought to be held
up as a Popular Preacher you will forgive the terrors of a
nervous man. I have chosen my text 'This generation
shall not pass away till all be fulfilled.' By ' this Generation '
This Race and Lineage of mine — This my Church shall
endure to the End of Time. I must write my Sermon
because I cannot stand up among such an assemblage and
talk extempore as I do here among my own people." ^
To J. G. Godwin, Esq.
"June 12, 1866.
" My Dear Sir,
" But for the arrival of the John Bull I might
suppose you transferred to Office in the Gladstone Ministry
and removed to London. This time the hiatus in Writing
is with you. The Bishop's Visitation at Launceston held
by his Son the Archdn as Vicar-General came off last week.
I preached having received the Bp's nomination only 5
days before my MS. had to be completed. Text Luke 21-
33 as a promise of the Eternal endurance of the Ch. A
large concourse — full of compliments — a general request to
print and an offer to contribute for the expense. But of
course I declined. Too late now. Wills has never offered
yet to pay me for ' Daniel Gumb ' and of two Ballads I sent
him a Month ago he has taken no notice either in print or
by letter. All this disheartens every effort. I have a
' Mr. Baring-Gould gives in full the Sermon which he says Hawker
preached at Launceston, but with another text and date. In her copy of his
book Mrs. Hawker has written, "This is as unlike my Husband's
language as it is possible for anything to be. It so happened that he -wrote
this Sermon, as was his custom when for any very special occasion. I have
the original. This Sermon from beginning to end is not even a good repro-
duction." These discrepancies were pointed out in 1876 by Mr. Maskell in
the Athenisum, but they still appear in Mr. Baring-Gould's latest edition,
without any explanation.
ST. THOMAS OF INDIA 545
paper by me now on Antony Payne, the Stowe Giant, and
I have not the heart to copy it for type,"
To the same.
"June XV., 1866.
..." I should Hke to see ' Ecce Homo ' if you could
g-et me a loan of it. Postage paid of course by me to and
fro. I also want a 6d copy of Doctor Newman's ' Dream of
Gerontius ' if that is the accurate name (to buy). No, thank
you, I would not accept any Professorship if offered me.
All this is too late. I inserted in my Sermon an account of
the discovery of St. Thomas the Apostle's Death and
Burial in India thus. The sole question ever was, Is it
apostolic } then it must endure. Was it from the xij .■' then
it will never pass away. A small company of Xtian Men
found in Upper India among the Mountains, origin un-
known ; afterwards a Tomb with Staff and ~j~, a legend that
there lived, laboured, and was slain St. T the Ap. : St. T
the Twin. Even in his ashes survived the Apostolic fire —
and whole ages after he was dust Virtue went out of the
dust of St. Thomas of India. I remembered this from
Gretser and wanted my MS. to amplify. When shall I
receive it back .'' "
To J. Soniers James, Esq.
"Mww. July 5, 1866.
" My Dear John,
" Your tidings concerning [a member of a
very rich family] are sorrowful. But I have long seen that
howsoever prosperous the family may be in money success
they have not God's blessing. If we could know the secret
history of many others of these pecuniary magnates of
London we should find that they are under a similar
doom. When they arrive at such a point of wealth that
2 M
546 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
they say, ' Where shall I bestow my goods ? ' the judgment
falls — 'This Night thy Soul shall be required' and then
' Whose shall these things be ? ' To avert this a Rich Man
ought to invest in Paradise, and to lay up Treasure in
Heaven, as he might so easily do, for like the Post Office
Banks the Angels will take even Sixpence on account and
pay noble interest for a Cup of Cold Water invested in
their Master's name. The only one of the Apostles who
clutched the Bag was a lost man and a miserable
suicide. . . ."
To J. G. Godwin, Esq.
"Sept. ix., 1866.
" My Dear Sir,
" You must be glad to be at home again after
your worry in chase of pleasure. Napoleon used the word
' Glory' in his Bulletins. But Wellington substituted ' Duty'
as better befitting an English Man.
" We had a Mrs. Wilder here on Saturday : she was a
Miss Hawes daughter of Sir Benjamin, M.P. for Lam-
beth. , . . She asked if I should be offended if her Husband
had fulfilled his purpose of offering me a donation towards
my Church and Poor Expenses here. I said I should have
received anything thankfully from 50^^ to sixpence. So
he will send a gift. She is a distant connection of mine
through the Brunels. There is a question I have been
going to ask you but forgot. In my Aquinas there is con-
tinual reference to the Golden Truths 'Aureae Yeritates.'
What is meant .-• Have you ever seen a Glimpse of the
Gloss (Lyra's) on the SS. which you obtained once and I
ought to have had. I intend to work hard this Winter at
MS. and reading. . . . The pith of ' Ecce Homo ' is an Eng-
lish Version of the Eastern formula and may run thus —
'There is no God but Jehovah and Jesus is his Prophet.'
'SIR RALPH DE BLANCM I XSTER' 547
But pronounce Jehovah Yea-ho-vah a Dactyle in Prosody
the first syllable long the two next short. I inclose you a
piece of a letter from Dr. Crocker of Bristol. When you go
there you had better call on him. He is a Self-made Man
and a simple straightforward mind. I like him. The
Weather is quite worthy of the Prince of the Powers of the
air to whom the atmosphere of this Island is surrendered
because of the great majority of Vassals of his own which
exists in this Vulcanic nation. He won this pre-eminence
by becoming the Baal of English Worship and his minister-
ing Demons have given up in return the Myths of Steam &
Gas and the oxydes for Anglican Reward."
To the same.
"Sept. 25, 1866.
, . , " I suppose you are again in full Oxford Harness.
I wish I could be with you on that old ground — the only
place for which I would exchange Morwenstow. ..."
7o J. Soiiicrs Javics^ Esq.
"Sept. xxj., 1866.
" I am expecting 'Sir Ralph' every week in Once a Week
with an illustration — Seven fat Feoffees' in the grasp of the
Demon just above Stratton Tower making off, their oil
melting out as they go. Do you remember Bold Cop-
pinger the Marsland Pirate .-* He died '^J years ago. I
am collecting materials for his life for All the Year Round.
" This ballad of Sir Ralph was suggested by an ancient local Charity of
which he was the mythical founder. The Charity is governed by seven
Feoffees, and Mr. Somers James at that time was a member of the l)oard.
Tliis is of course a cliaffiiig letter. In the ballad the devil consoles hinisflf for
the loss of Sir Ralph's soul by the reflection that the souls of the ftorfecs will
he an easy prey — -
" ' Ho ! ho ! ' cried the fiend, with a mock at Heaven :
" ' I have lost but one : I siiall win my seven,' "
548 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
If you know any anecdotes of him or Dinah his wife will
you let me know. . . ."
To J. Somers James, Esq. (asking him to enquire about
the price of a pony-gig).
"25 Sept., 1866.
" Can you go so far } If not cannot you prevail on
Sommers to mount his rushing steed * Foal of a Hundred
Sires his flashing eye Shared in his Master's pride and
flashed with Victory.' Let him sit well back — the inner
side of his knees and thighs pressed against the side — his
elbows square and his wrists brought low down. When
this is settled and arranged let him bound along the lanes
and with his Spur ' Provoke the gambol that he seems to
chide,' Will not the rosy housemaid as she leans out to
wash the outside glass pause, brush in hand, to exclaim ' My
eyes ! what a Rooster ! Cock-a-doodle-doo ! ' . . But all
this is irrelevant,"
To the same.
"Octr. 22, 1866.
" My Dear John,
..." I inclose you a copy of a Circular "^ which I
am about to issue for an effort to imitate you in accumula-
tion. I have fixed a young age, but if you or Sommers like
to come I will teach you at all events self-denial and a few
other Gentile duties in which you are defective. A Man,
you know, may be a very good Christian and yet be a bad
' The circular ran as follows : —
" The Vicar of Morwenstow, Cornwall, will receive into his House by the
Sea Two or Three Pupils from the age of 14 to 17 years to be prepared for the
Universities or otherwise.
" For terms and details apply to
" R. S. Hawker,
"Vicarage, Morwenstow
"Octr, 22, r866."
A WHALE ON SHORE 549
Pagan after all. Show the circular to Coombs and ask his
opinion and also to Prynne. I prefer this mode of publicity
to Advertisement. A Telegraphic cable is laid down
between England and America and messages are said to
travel to and fro. Do you remember old Nanny Cornish *
who lived opposite Stratton Vicarage .-' She died forty years
ago come Candlemas. Well, well, good Night."
"Yrs. affectionately,
" R. S. Hawker."
" Do write at once. S is in this Neighbourhood
lionizing. I should not like him to put his head in my
mouth."
To Mrs. Watson.
"Xovr. 25, 1866.
" Mv Dear Mrs. Watson,
" How very strange that the arrival of a Whale on
our Rocks should have recalled your reminiscences of your
early life and been a subject with which }'OU should have
been so entirely conversant. You never adverted to this
branch of the Merchandize wherein your Father's life and
household must have been familiar. The Tenant of the
land bordered by the Shore where this Monster lay took as
I told you possession, had cut the carcase into junks and
drawn off many hogsheads of Oil. He was boasting of
having made a very large profit : several Sums were
mentioned from £\OQ> to iJ"3oo, for they reckoned on 30
casks at iJ"io a cask, when all at once on Tuesday down came
a bevy of Preventive Men from the Bideford Coast-guard
and took possession of all — the Body of the Whale and the
oil drawn off. They took it as a I\oyal Fish, and tlic claim
was made for the Prince of Wales as owner of llie l)uch\- of
• P()ssi!)ly the original of Nanny Heale in • A RiJc from Biuic to Boss,'
which Hawker was writing about this time.
550 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
Cornwall. The Tenant claimed payment for what he had
done and his labour, but they answered, ' No,' he had not
given any lawful notice to the Authorities and had intended
to take possession for himself and therefore he must not look
for payment. On Friday they held the Sale for the remains
of the Whale and for the oil which had been secured — the
result in money has not transpired nor do people know to
what uses they can put the oil. It is a thick fluid like
melted grease and appears to require some clarifying process
before it could be made to ascend the tubes of a lamp.
The Preventive Officer told me that by an ancient law the
whole Fish went to the Crown and that the head with the
whalebone was regarded as the perquisite of the Queen and
the rest of the Body went to the King."
To J. Soniers James, Esq.
"Novr. 27, 1866.
" We liked W. at least the little we saw of him. Of what
was behind his Beard we can say nothing. He gave no
specimen of his musical capabilities, except a subdued
rumbling in his Bowels which I attributed to his dining
with . . .
" ' Sir Ralph ' has killed Two of the Artists for Once a
Week — both died since it was set up in type and they or
theirs were illustrating it for Walford the Editor. Hadn't
you an Aunt called Coppinger .-' Do pray write ; you utterly
omit to answer my most important questions."
To R. A. Mountjoy, Esq.
" Deer, xiij., 1866.
" My Dear Sir,
" I have sent Sir Stafford [Northcote] a clear state-
ment of your reasonable pretensions to that which you seek
LITERARY WORK 551
and I have told him the plain fact that I am personally in-
terested in your success, that I make it a personal plea. Still
you remember the Psalm ' Put not your trust in Princes ' nor
indeed in any child of Man."
" I received the Magazine. The paper on Cornwall
is written by a man well known to me by repute and that
by no means good. A piece of meagre absurdity ; nor do I
relish ' Laus in ore peccatoris specioso ' from a Man whom
Job and I disdain to put with the dogs of the Flock."
To/. G. Godwin ^ Esq.
"Deer, xiv., 1866.
..." You will see ' Cruel Coppinger ' in the No oi A y
Yr Rd for to-morrow. I am now writing a Paper on
Thomasine Bonaventure in 1447 who from a Cornish Shep-
herdess became Lady Mayoress of London. The worst
point I see in these MSS. is that Somebody always cuts out
the best phrases and the most salient lines. No pay yet
from Wills. ' Sir Ralph ' will appear in Once a Week in
January. . . Thank you for the Church Times as well as the
John Bull. I have made up my mind to give up all
distinctive usage in Service. I will not be in the power of
the Base and I can look for no protection from the Powers
of Earth. How can a decision of the Courts or Bishops
override individual practice .'* The Corner Stone of the
Establishment is private judgment — that is, Personal opinion,
— whatsoever tenet or usage an Englishman thinks right is
right."
To J. Sonicrs James, Esq., Ju?iior.
" Deer. 15, 1S66.
" Mv Dear Sommers,
" Duties are seldom pleasures. Nevertheless a
duty signifies a thing that must be done. This axiom
552 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
applies to Blackwood's Scribbling Diary for 1867. Unless
it reaches me before New Year's Day how can you expect a
Happy New Year, and unless I regularly use it how can I
enter what you had for Dinner on your visit to Morwenstow ?
'Awful thought,' as Grandfather says in his Poor Man's
Portion. Your name does not occur in the Diary for 1866.
[Mr, Somers James was in the habit of sending him one
of these diaries every year. He had omitted to do so in
1866.]
" Remember I have it in my power to cut you off with a
Shilling, and I know a Man who will lend me a Shilling to
do it with. Soothe your Relieving Officer [Mr. Somers
James, Senior]. I fear he is wrothy because I did not write.
"R. S. H."
To J. G. Godwin, Esq.
" Deer, xxiv., 1866.
" My Dear Sir,
" With every good wish and Sympathy of the
Season I write to acknowledge the safe arrival of the MS.
which I have re-read and will restore to you as soon as
possible. I cannot discover one paragraph to alarm any one
but a Record correspondent. The Engravings are mostly
taken from type already published. But there is a deadly
hatred nurtured against me by all the Press. When I
preached the Visitation at Lanson ^ this Summer every other
Visit of the Archdeacon was reported and every other
Sermon given in detail. Because I preached there all
mention of Lanson was omitted by every local paper.
Paragraphs have been going the round of the Press on the
subject of Ruskin's Candidature for the Poetry Professorship,
and they give a list of the Newdigate Prizemen omitting
my name only. Yes, they actually give the man before me
» Launceston (pronounced 'Lanson).
Rl,\ . K' >M k I I! \\\ Kli;, I'.l
THOMASINE BONAVENTURE 553
who won it and the man after but my Prize year is totally
omitted. Ubi lapsus? Quid feci? But even Sylvanus
Urban has pubHshed Papers by BHght of Penzance which
contained passages by vie — but in my own name nil. Yet
I never won a name to become invidious. Can you send
me the Account of the Shepherdess of the Wiltshire Downs
who became Lady Mayoress of London .-' This must be a
fiction, for all the Histories of Cornwall relate the fact of
Thomasine Bonaventure of Wike St. Marie."
To Mrs. Watson.
"March 10, 1867.
..." The practice you mention at the Christening is
one I never heard of before. I do not know what the
Romans may do, but I should think whatever they wear
they put it on in the Vestry. But there is always something
strange and new coming out now in the Churches, and I do
not wonder that the people are repelled by novelties they
cannot understand. I sometimes think that there will be a
revolution in Church matters soon : every one seems involved
in some strife except myself I think there are not many
in England who have gone on such years in one place as I
have unnoted and unassailcd."
To/. G. Godii'in, Esq.
"March i8, 1867.
. . . "The MS. in the Gent's Mag: [' Morwenstow '] I
sent to Maskell and asked him to do the best he could with
it. The Result you have seen. I do not \-ct know what
requital in Money I am to have for it, nor can I guess.
Tliomasine Bonaventure is in No. 412 of All ihc Year
Round. I mean to work hard now that I have extorted a
little encouragement from the austere Editors of Modern
England. All here as usual except the Weather and that
554 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
is as bitter as the Shores of Zembla. . . . Our poor animals
are indeed tried. Scarcity of food added to severity of
weather. One of my Cart-horses Old Prince the White
Horse died last week — 24 years. Old Polly lives but is
bareboned."
To Mrs. Watson.
" Easter Sunday, 1867.
" This day Our Blessed Saviour awoke in his Sepulchre
in the Garden and as it is said in Prophetic Scripture ' He
arose at the voice of the bird,' for a Dove aroused him with
her soft and thrilling tone on a Tree outside the Tomb.
And all Nature around us here is in unison with the glad
event we celebrate to-day. The Birds sung in Wellcombe
Wood and my Robin was on the accustomed bough. I
have thought for years it was the same Bird that greeted me
there every Spring. The Woodpeckers building in our
Valley have been cooing among the leaves. The Rooks in
the Churchyard are busy with their young, and little Polly
has been out with food for the hens calling ' cup cup ' with
her little voice. And so 'twill be when I am gone, is the
thought that arises in the mind, when a Stranger shall
occupy these walls and names we know not shall be sounded
here. What a brief and shadowy period it is after all this
three score years and ten. It is even as a dream when one
awaketh."
To J. G. Godwin, Esq.
"May!., 1867.
..." My Paper ' A Ride from Bude to Bos,' the very
best of all I ever wrote was sent up to Town on a W^ednes-
day. On Sunday Evening I received the Proof for Revision
— to be corrected and returned, it was said, by immediate
Post. This I did and on the strength of the acceptance of
A LOST MANUSCRIPT 555
the first MS, I wrote and sent off a Second, a continuance of
the first, ' A Ride from Bos to St. Nunn's ' ^ and dispatched
it. Yesterday arrived a note from Wills to say that to his
regret they were unable to accept my Two Papers : they
were found too discursive. Being accounts of a journey
along the Coast and Moor it would have been wonderful if
they had been condensed into one spot, I had prepared
another ' The Botathen Ghost,' which is now in Wills's
hands but which I expect back every day. Discouraged —
baffled — broken-minded — all effort for extrication seems
hopeless and indeed amid such insulting repulsion who can
write ? "
To R. A. Mount joy, Esq.
"May 4, 1867.
" The phrase to which you refer in * Sir Ralph ' — ' By
seal and signet, knife and sod ' relates to the mode of giving
possession of lands when devised by will or sold in old times.
The Will or Deed was of course sealed and signed and then
a knife & a piece of turf cut with the knife from the surface
of the soil was delivered as symbolic of possession given
thereby to the parties concerned,
" I take no interest in Politics & I am always sorry when
any friends of mine do so. It is far better to keep aloof in
times like these from every thing but duty the great
implement of human success."
To Mrs. Watson.
"May 19, 1867.
" Mv Df:AR Mrs. Watson,
" I often think in my troubles of St. Augustine
who once said ' I never thought myself one of God's chosen
' This article does not appear to have been published in any magazine, and
cannot now be traced.
556 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
ones until I became chastised year after year with grievous
sorrow. Then I understood,' he goes on to declare, ' by these
continual afflictions in this world that God had predestined
me to inherit the joyous consolations of the world to come.'
This has already struck me as a graphic illustration of the
text ' Those whom God loveth he chasteneth and scourgeth
every one whom he receiveth at the last.' I am very sure
that if ' in this tabernacle of our flesh we groan ' it is that we
may yearn for the city yet to come and wean ourselves from
this abode before we come to die. The old pagan and
indeed the Jewish notion was that all God's favourites were
distinguished by earthly happiness and transitory reward, but
the Christian truth is the direct reverse of this. Our Lord
pronounces those blessed who should mourn and suffer, be
poor and wretched here in this world, because theirs
would be the kingdom of Heaven.
" I know not why, but I always in my own secret thoughts
doubted your comfort in London scenery or life. I person-
ally hate a Town. So many evil persons so much pain so
great temptations gathered together in one place must invite
the demon and the Evil Spirits to infest every path and
besiege every home. Where the Race of Adam assemble in
such multitudes they carry all the evil of their origin with
them in their veins. I dread cities. Whereas in the Country
amid God's free air with fields around and the animals feed-
ing there the Angels must delight to minister and the very
scene will soothe. I think whatsoever change may remove
you from the reeking city will be in itself a blessing. . . .
But for duty I should never go outside the boundary of
house and glebe."
To J. G. Godwin, Esq.
"Tune i., 1867.
..." I have awaited day after day all this while, ever
MAMMOTH PUBLISHERS 557
since March ist, a remittance from Walford for Sylvanus
Urban. But nothing to this date. He said not long ago that
Bradbury would so resent being asked for payment that no
future MS. would be accepted. Now as the only motive that
induces me ever to write is L : S : D I shall certainly not
obtrude anything of mine on him or his again. The whole
procedure is disgustingly illustrative of the treatment of
Writers by Mammoth Publishers in the xixth Age. Nothing
meaner ever disgraced the days of Johnson, Dryden,
Chatterton. It has been to me so real an inconvenience
that a dead weight of discouragement has loaded my mind
ever since. Is it true that a Wesleyan Conventicle is to be
built in Oxford and endowed from the University Chest ?
And there is a report that Undergraduates on admission are
not to be expected to sign their names but to make their
mark if unable to write."
To Mrs. Watson.
"June 2, 1867.
"Your letters remind one of the verse —
" Dearly bought the hidden treasure
Finer feelings can bestow :
Chords that vibrate sweetest pleasure
Thrill the deeper notes of woe."
Lines that I often apply to myself"
To/. G. Godwin^ Esq.
"June X., 1867.
" My Dear Sir,
" Thank you very much for introducing my ' Quest
of the Sangraal ' to the Marquis of Bute . . . His ancestor was a
Great Patron in the Georgian days. God knows I want one now.
Nothing from Walford altho' I have written twice. My
558 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
heart is almost gone. I am much too prostrate to write.
That accursed Balance at the Bank is a Millstone around my
neck and will drag me under one day. No one can have
striven more than I have for the last Six months to make
money and a paltry 15;^ is all my requital. . . .
" p.S. — Do you think from what you know of me and my
Style that I should succeed as a Preacher in a Town or City
or University .-' "
To the Rev. W. West.
"June xi., 1867.
" My Dear Mr. West,
" Your surmises were partly true. My own health
or rather my Spirits depressed and our gentle little Celt
Morwenna ill. In August my Wife hopes to be again a
Mother and we earnestly trust that the Angel of Souls may
have shed on us the Spirit of a Son. A Manchild ! Our
Babies thank God will not have much in their veins of the
Saxon Swine. My Mother's Father was a Dane. My Wife
is a Pole of blue descent, and my Ancestor on the Male side
came over from Ireland, a Celt and Master of the Hawks to
one of the Thomonds — hence the name. I shall be very
glad to see your life of Leighton. I shall try to get it in a
distinct Form; his Works I don't care much about notwith-
standing Coleridge & his eulogy. I have long ceased to
read anything more recent than the Era of our Revolt. The
Summa of St. Thos., my one book, is sufficient for a human
life. I wish I could go on with the ' Quest,' but a Man with
a Millstone round his neck in the shape of an adverse
Banker's Balance, whose Shadow like that of an Eastern
Prince will never be less, is enough to plunge any ]Man's
Soul into the Sea. The curse of all Writers has always been
upon me. All other gifts if you seek them without stint, but
neither Silver nor Gold. This of yore I did not heed, but
MONEY TROUBLES 559
now another thought comes from the Faces around me and
I shudder as I look."
To J. G. Godwin, Esq.
"June 22, 1867.
" My Dear Sir,
" I fear I shall not be able ever to appear in
another Pulpit. I must bear my Burthen here as long- as I
can and then Farewell. ... I am nearly crushed into the
Earth with the continual worry of my bitter existence. . . .
I think I shall soon cease to write even my own Signature."
To Mi's. Watson.
"July 7, 1867.
..." I feel every now and then that I do not deserve
such blessings of house and hearth as I have around me and
then what can I do for them }
" If I could but obtain employment from the Publishers
I should then rejoice to give all my spare time to working
for pay, but the truth is that unless you can and will write
sensation stories full of horror and guilt you will not be
popular in the present day. When I get anything accepted
in A// the Year Round I only receive lo/o a column, the
amount that Mr. Rowe [his Solicitor] pays his copying
clerk for Law Papers and is what he calls it Scrivener's pay."
To J. G. Godwin, Esq.
"Oct. 14, 1867.
..." I quite envy you the place you live in. Oxford
always seemed to me a place sui generis with its own pur-
suits and occupations, where amid the fine old Architecture
of the Past the toil and turmoil cark and care of the present
might be shaken off and forgotten. Thank you for the
John Bull. I have given up The Times and so lost one
56o LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
reminder of the Wretchedness of England. Messrs Brag-
& Sham, that purely English Firm, seem to have turned
their hand to Church Matters and ruled and reigned in the
Pan-Anglican Synod. What trash they have issued.
They might as well have informed the Clergy that there is
a God and that men are bound to worship him. , . . Our
little Rosalind is doing pretty well. . . . Her Baptism was
good and satisfactory. The Babe was tranquil up to the
Aspersion and then cried, as if by Signal, to avouch the
departure of the Fiend. ..."
To J. G. Godwin^ Esq.
"Oct. xxj., 1867.
..." I agree with Mr. Hackman in his estimate of the
Pan-Anglican circular. Strange that a Synod of Bishops
should not have the faintest suspicion as to the real nature
of Our Lord's Mediation. Theirs and the commonly
uttered opinion seems to be that the Second Person of the
Trinity is a God upon his knees approaching the other Two
Persons in the inferior and humiliating Attitude of Prayer.
This is very far from the true meaning of the Doctrine of
God. In all Prayer there is humiliation and inferiority.
To impute either of these to our Blessed Redeemer is
heresy and Sin. He stands in the midst of the Trinity to
grant and bestow all benediction and forgiveness through
his Middle nature royally."
To the same,
"Novr. xij., 1867.
"The gratuitous Assassin has again fled in failure and
shame. Any one whose eye has not grown dim must see
a hand man cannot see, that shields and rescues the
Successor of the Galilaean Pilot from peril and death. Tell
me the difference between Stephens the Fenian and Gari-
THE FENIANS 561
baldi the Nizzard except that the Former can allege the
plea of Patriotism whereas the latter is not even an Italian
but a native of Nice, for which land he never uttered a
sound when it was annexed."
To Mrs. Watson.
" Deer. 29, 1867.
" Little did I think that the Fenians would be able to
harass us here. Yet it is so. Policemen are sent to line
and watch our Cliffs and strange vessels are seen off the
shore sounding the depths of the Sea. Even Wellcombe
is in a state of great excitement about this new terror.
And at Bideford an incendiary fire of, it is said, Fenian
origin. No corner of the land is free. ... I am glad you
have gone back to a part of the Bible which I have always
valued. It is called Apocrypha because the Authors for the
most part were secret Scribes, but its authority was in
ancient times, when they knew best, equal to that of the
other Books of the Old Testament. Ecclesiasticus is a
word signifying The Preacher and it was written 200
Before Xt by Jesus or Joshua the Son of Sirach of
Jerusalem. There is not in all the World a Book so full
of historic and useful learning or so valuable in the affairs of
human life. Many of its chapters are beautiful Summaries
of Sacred History full of poetic beauty and graphic as a
picture."
To J. G. Godwin, Esq.
"Deer. 31, 1867.
. . . "The Season demands the interchange of good
wishes between Friends. ... I hardly hear now from any
correspondents indeed I seldom write any one but your-
self Bloxam wrote to ask for a copy of my Trclawiiy
Ballad and after some weeks I sent it. I Ccumot love the
2 N
562 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
world nor the people of the world for I feel that the world
has not used me well. ' As well as you deserve,' said a
still small voice at that moment, and the whisper was
right."
To R. A. Mountjoy, Esq.
" Jany. 4, 1868.
" Winter is gliding away in stormy moisture, a result of
the nearer approach of the Gulf Stream to our Shores. A
vast Sea River of warmed water gushes from the Gulf of
Florida across the Ocean heated by a thinner crust of the
Earth over its interior Fires than elsewhere just at the source.
This massive Volume of Sea water rolls unmingled along
with an Arch of Rarefied Air curving over its breadth and
length. This lightened Atmosphere draws the wind from
other currents and kindles them into cyclones hurricane and
cloud. Hence our mild Air, Rain, and sudden bursts of
Storm, and this is all the news I can send you from the Far
West."
To J. Somers James, Esq.
" January vj., 1868.
" My Dear John,
" I thought so much about you and yours last
night in Stratton Pulpit that I yield readily to the impulse
which urges me to write to you to-night. At Rowe's
express desire and from no other motive I preached for his
schools there — Text ' Go therefore and teach all nations,'
and for the half hour of my utterance you might have heard
a pin drop. The result was an Offertory of ^^5-14-6, the
former collections having been from 28 - to 39 -. There
were 150 pence, 8 half-crowns, 10 florins, and two gold —
one of these a George the Second Spade Guinea with the
A MOVING SERMON 563
legend ' For the good old times.' You know they were
holed and inscribed and worn very often as memorials. I
should like to know who gave it as it is worth 25/-, I believe.
There were hordes of strangers, indeed a Church quite full.
You may guess what old recollections were called up, what
comparisons arose in my broken mind. I observe that you
and Sommers pointedly absent yourselves from my orations,
Pauline would go. Caroline had a house full and we supped
at Rowe's. I served three Churches in one day and travelled
36 miles before I got home at night.
" How I wish you could see us once more before we are
shattered. My most bright and blessed child little Morry
quite appals me. She converses in long sentences, discovers
our very thoughts, and is intellect and loveliness personified.
I shudder over her all day long. Linda too is a lovely babe
and will I trust be like her sweet Mother. No more I hope.
I only wish Linda had been a boy. Yet why should the
male mould be prolonged } better broken once for all in me.
Now write me. It is my command.
" Our best love.
"Yours affectionately,
"R. S. Hawker."
A Stratton man who heard the Sermon mentioned in this
letter says that Hawker had often been asked to preach on
that annual occasion, but had always before declined, saying
he was sure he would break down, as so many of his friends
and kindred were buried in and around that church. His
father's grave is in the chancel. When he was at last per-
suaded to preach, it happened as he had predicted. He
suddenly interrupted the thread of his discourse, and with
faltering voice exclaimed, ' I stand amid the dust of those
near and dear to me.' Preacher and congregation alike were
moved to tears.
564 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
To J. G. Godivin, Esq.
"Jany. xij., 1868.
" My Dear Sir,
"In Notes & Queries for Jany 4 I see advertised
'The Quest of the Sancgreall ' by T. Westwood ; PubHsher,
Russell Smith. Do you know anything- of this ? or can you
ascertain ? He I doubt not will win what I lose. Do you
know his other Publications } ' The Burden of the Bell ' —
* Chronicle of the Complete Angler ' } . . . Do you know
any cheap copy of the Thalmud — Latin translation ? The
parts are two, The Mishna and Gemara, Text and Comment.
I always regret your transfer of ' Lyra's Gloss ' to your Mag-
dalene friend. Macdonald the Author has been at Bude
this Summer. His daughters came here with Mr. Mills
but he did not accompany them. . . , No notice of my
Second Bude to Boss Paper has been taken by the Lords of
Belgravia.
" Our Xmas is gone off as usual sadly and in gloom. The
Gale on Saturday did me great injury. It rent away lO;^
worth of the remaining Roof of my Barn. It is like a doom.
My own interpretation is that from my being the only
Clergyman in the Diocese who exposes continually the
existence and usages of the Demons I am especially
obnoxious to them. I was actually saying in Church in a
a Sermon on Job * Touch not his life ' when on the Fast day
the first Roof fell down, and now I had been denouncing
them as the Authors of Storm and Tempest Fire and Hail
when this second onslaught was made on me in the night."
To Mrs. Watson.
"Feby. 2, 1868.
" The name Fenian is said to be the title of the old Celtic
Princes of the Irish Tribes, and so adopted to claim identity
with the original people. iMoore the Poet uses the term in
DEATH OF DR. MACBRIDE 565
one of his National Songs. It seems to mean now Rebels
and Murderers. What the end will be no one knows. I
think the old prophecy will be fulfilled and 1868 will be the
beginning of the end in England.
" Poor old Doctor Macbride ^ who was the Head of my
College in Oxford died last week aged 90. He was very
rich but tormented for years by the dread of poverty. This-
is one of the punishments inflicted for love of riches in this
world. Old Morrison the Atheist Draper in Bread Street
London, who died worth a Million, always affirmed he Wcis
maintained by the Union and made his heir pay him 2/6
every week that he might be saved from starvation,"
To J. Somers James, Esq. Junr.
"Feby. vij., 1868.
" My Dear Sommers,^
" I am very glad that you have obtained so valu-
able a Master for our Dustyfoot [a dog] as Mr. Square.
When you see Mr. Square pray tell him how glad I am that
I shall not have to entrust old Dusty to an entire Stranger.
He was born in the latter part of 1863."
Dr. Square afterwards attended Hawker in his last illness.
"Feby. 23, 1868.
" Mv Dear ]\Irs. Watson,
" We are in the midst of the old horrors. On
Wednesday we had with all England a fearful hurricane.
Six W'ssels came ashore on this immediate coast. Three
near Budc. Two at Hartlatid Point and one on my own
Rt)cks just where the Cakdo}iia was lost in 1845. ^ ^^''^s
sent for from the Cliffs early in the morning and on going
' He writes to Mr. Oodwin : — ..." I see Poor M.ichricie's death. I
wish some one would j;et me his Place at Magdalene Hall. 1 sIt uld like a
Resilience in Oxford."
-' r''sually spelt "Somers," Init Ir; Hawker, "Sommers."
566 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
out I found a lugger Masts gone drifting in on the Beach.
An hour after she struck — No man visible on board. As
soon as the tide had ebbed we got on board and found none
of the crew there. The Boat soon after washed on Shore
empty. The hull was terribly battered and crushed in.
The cargo Buckwheat. We found a Tin Case with the Ship's
Papers. Her name the /eune /osgpk of Kidon in Brittany,
Crew 5 men — all French. I sent off a Man for Mr. Rowe
of Stratton who came at once. Men were put in charge
and to search the Rocks and Sea for the Crew, Next
Morning the Watchers found the Body of one of the Sailors
clothed only in a Red Jersey and belt. He was as usual
jammed in between the rocks. He was carried to my
Premises and placed in the Room up in my yard which we
always use as a Deadhouse. We sent off a pressing letter
to the Coroner 27 miles off at Launceston, to beg him to
come as soon as possible, and we made the usual prepara-
tions by having the Body washed and shrouded and a
Coffin made. On Friday came the Coroner and held the
inquest and in the Evening I buried him. Poor nameless
fellow ! He had not been long dead, so there was not
much to distress us in the state of the Corpse. But now
we await in terror and dread the discovery of the other four.
And besides there are two Crews drowned and in the Water
off Hartland Point — all which are liable to drift in with the
strong currents we have towards our beach."
To Airs. Watsoti.
"March i, 1868.
" Another \''essel and that a Steamer came ashore under
the Wellcombe Cliffs on Tuesday night. The Cargo was
Coal tar and no man alive was found on Board but next day
the Crew arrived by land having got on Shore at Clovelly in
their Boat. They say that their Vessel sprung a leak and
WRECK OF THY. /EUNE JOSEPH 567
began to fill fast, so they deserted her and took to their
boat. This was good news to me because the Wreck
occurred in my other parish and they nine in number would
have made mournful work for me if drowned.
" I have written in French to the Cure of the Parish in
Brittany to which the Crew of the French Vessel belonged,
to tell him the sorrowful tale that he may inform the Friends
of the dead. I found and sent to him a letter to one of the
Crew from his promised wife, his Fiancee, hoping for the
speedy return of her lover whom now she will never more
see. I also told him of the Burial of the Sailor who was
found and laid under our Trees, describing his height and
appearance that if possible he might be identified. I have
carefully kept my poor Wife in the house and managed to
pacify little Polly's inquiries about the people who come
and why Dadda goes to the Churchyard and Church. She
is indeed a Child of amazing intellect. She is, you know,
two years and three months only of age, yet besides her
little spontaneous prayers she can say the Lord's Prayer
every word kneeling at my knee. She said the other night,
' Dear Jesus made that prayer, Dadda.' Yet I had never
told her so nor can I find that any one had. But she refers
all things relating to the Sky and Heaven to Our Saviour
by name, O may he shield her in her Sorrows that will
surely come thick and fast,"
To the same.
"March 1868.
"A letter from Brittany to ask if I can sign a certificate
that I have buried the Captain, Pillard, & his Photograph to
assist identity. I fear I cannot from the decay of the
features."
568 lifp: of r. s. hawker
To J. G. Godwin^ Esq.
"March 3, 1868.
..." Could you ascertain by Mitchell's leave the Title
and Edition of the Latin Translation of the Thalmud which
belongs to Magd : Hall Library and which Macbride allowed
me to bring down to Bude and read in the Long Vacation.
That infamous and invidious article in the Quarterly ought
to be branded if possible. It is an Ecce Homo effort."
To J. Somers James, Esq.
"22 March, 1868.
" I thank Sommers very warmly for his royal gift of a
princely pipe, and I thank you also for yours as I understood
you are the donor of the small one. No such instrument
was ever seen in Mww. before, & as our Parish vestry is to
be held on Tuesday I shall have to produce it then for in-
spection & possibly for vote. I will let you know the
result."
"April 19, 1868.
" ]\Iy Dear Mrs. Watson,
" You always give me hard tasks to perform.
How can I with the sights and scenes before my eyes,
children's faces and my Wife's, avoid thinking of my bodily
ailments and mental prophecies .'* A letter from Budd
which I cannot send on to you is just what I foretold but is
it not strange .'' his advice and yours is the same — not to
think on my symiptoms unless forced on me and to preserve
a cheerful temper and mind. How wonderfull}- did Shake-
speare delineate my thoughts ! Macbeth says to the
Doctor : —
" ' Canst thou not minister to a mind diseased,
Pluck from the memory a rooted sorrow.
And with some sweet obhvious antidote
Cleanse the full bosom of that perilous stuff
That weighs upon the Soul?'
"A MIND DISEASED" 569
The Doctor says —
" ' My Lord, therein the patient
Must minister to himself.'
and Macbeth answers —
" ' Throw physic to the dogs !
I'll none on't.' "
"April 26, 1868.
" My Dear Mrs. Watson,
" 'As in water face answereth to face so doth the
heart of man to his friend.' Your kind letter cannot fail to
elicit every pleasant and cheerful response in my power.
Do you know that your good advice as to the regulation of
the mind recalls to my recollection a Lecture to Young Men
delivered at Ipswich some years agone by Cardinal Wiseman.
He told his hearers that when they were assailed by un-
pleasant and irksome thoughts it was in their own power to
banish them by selecting some agreeable and useful theme
of thought, and saying with firm resolve Now 1 will think
at this very moment on such and such a subject and no
other and thus by fixing the attention and the mind on the
chosen topic banish every other from the mind. I have
tried this especially since I received your last letter and Dr.
Budd's and I really do discover that I am able to think
nearly as I will and that the new and chosen topic soon
banishes tlie old and evil one altogether. Those two phrases
'/zc'/7/'and ' Noiv' are said to be the strong sources of
success in every man's life. And as we can choose the sub-
jects on which we write so can we those on which we
think."
To the same.
"May 3, 1868.
. . . "Tlic Ab}-ssin!an victory, costly as it is, is better
570 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
than prolonged war and death. No one seems to com-
passionate the dead King. Yet he must have had some
good points. He might have put the captives to death
after his first defeat but did not do so. Then he might have
blown up the fort at Magdala after our troops got in and so
even dying himself have slain multitudes. But all this he
did not do. His whole demeanour and his death reminds me
very much of Saul and his insane anger and violent death."
To Mrs. Watson.
"May 17, 1868.
, . . "Yes! Lord Brougham's death at a very advanced
age is a word of warning to all. The Bishop of Exeter and
he were born in the same year. He I fear will follow soon.
Lord B. made a great noise but his life was a failure
throughout. He stirred up many minds and he set agoing
many Societies for the improvement of England, but he
succeeded in nothing. Shall I tell you why .? He was a
Socinian, therefore not a Christian, and in all his human
efforts he left out God. Therefore Grace never rested on
him, never aided him. A good and learned Mohammedan
would have done quite as much as Lord Brougham.
" We do indeed live in wonderful times. Everything
ancient and venerable seems to be assailed with fierce and
persevering hatred. The aim and purpose of the measure
so much talked of is to take from the Established Church
of Ireland her Revenues and her support by the State.
The tithes are to be alienated by Parliament. The Bishops
are to be appointed no more by the Queen nor to sit in the
House of Lords — indeed the Irish Church if they succeed
will be on the same footing with Wesleyans or Baptists or
any other Sect. And this done because the Great majority
of the Irish People do not belong to that Establishment. But
the same argument may by and by apply to the English
BARABBAS OR CHRIST 571
Church also. If a Census be taken and it be found that a
majority of the EngHsh People do not enroll themselves as
Members of the Church then they may proceed to dis-
establish us in England as they now propose in Ireland.
The Times we live in are indeed fearful. Everything goes
by vote of the common people, and they always prefer
Barabbas to Christ."
CHAPTER XXIV
1868-1870
* Cornish Ballads ' — Letters from Froude — Wreck of
THE ' AVONMORE ' BiSHOP TeMPLE ArCHBISHOP TaIT
— ' Footprints ' — Money Troubles — The Vicar Photo-
graphed.
Early in 1868 Hawker began to think of collecting his
poems into a volume, and this idea took shape the following
year in the publication of ' Cornish Ballads ' by James
Parker of Oxford.
By this volume Hawker has won for himself a distinc-
tive place in English literature. First, it establishes him
as the poet of Cornwall. There are but few instances
of a muse so thoroughly local in spirit. Among the
greater names, those of Scott, Burns, and Wordsworth
most readily occur. Hawker's ballads, as for example,
' Sir Ralph de Blancminster,' have much in common
with the verse of Scott. But even his ballads are
pervaded by a religious sentiment peculiar to himself,
and it is, after all, as a religious poet, as the singer of
the Sangraal rather than of Trelawny, that he finds his
chief title to fame. It is generally assumed that religious
poetry must be dull ; but this is not the case with
Hawker. Religion in his verse is more akin to romance
than metaphysics.
572
LITERARY DOG-FISH 573
To the Rev. W. West.
" Morwenstovv. Feby. x., 1868.
" My Dear Mr. West,
"The occurrence of my name in Notes & Queries
after a long lapse may recall to your memory the fact that
for a long time you have ceased to manifest your former
sympathy with my house and home. I quote myself — ' Say !
is the Old Affection yearning still } ' You may gather from
the Notes I have written in the last 3 or 4 Nos. of Ns & Qs
what it is that troubles. A Mr. Westwood has thought fit
to adopt my Title ' The Quest,' etc. I hold a letter from
him wherein he acknowledges to have read my Poem
before he wrote his own. After this he gives his Book the
same name. But my first line every word of which by the
ashes of Merlin I invented myself he has twice inserted in
his verses and then to vindicate his own plagiarism he
accuses me of stealing it from some other source — hence my
Note in / hope Ns & Qs for Saty next. But it is time for
me to claim & identify my own productions which have
been for long a common prey among the literary Dog fish
of these Islands.
I am about to issue my * Cornish Ballads and other
Poems, including a Second Edition of the First Chant
of the Quest.' The price of the Book will be in all
likelihood about 5 'o and I wish to obtain as many Sub-
scribers' names as possible previously to publication that I
may go to my publisher with a better basis of negociation.
May I ask you to move in this matter } Is thine heart right
as my heart is with thy heart .'' If it be give me thine liand.
I know not how many of my Ballads you may have seen,
but the truth is my whole literary life has been frittered
away in little books. Here they are ! ' Records of the
Western Shore ' (Two Series First & Second) ; ' Reeds
574 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
Shaken with the Wind ' (First also and Second. Two) ;
' Ecclesia ' ; ' Echoes from Old Cornwall.' Six small Books
all sold and rapidly, nearly all charged to me for printing &
publishing, and from not one of them all did I ever receive
a shilling and hardly 5 copies of any one of them for my
own behoof So with the prose. In my Ecclesiastical days
I wrote Pamphlets & Articles many — no pay — no Copy, all
praised and sold. All this has been the result of my remote
and secluded abode here among the rocks and also that I
have never had friends. In my whole struggle into MSS. I
hardly remember a word of encouragement, an act of
succour. Every one of my compositions has been forth-
with sold but for no advantage of mine, and here I am at the
close of my days unnoted unknown and worst of all unpaid.
Legends which from the meagreness of the materials I
almost entirely invented I have recognised worked up and
used as their own by Wilkie Collins, Walter White, and
local thieves in troops. Now I have two sweet Children,
Morwenna Pauline 2 years & 2 months old and Rosalind 5
months, my Copyright might be one day of use to them &
value. So I mean to exert myself & at all events demand
the recognition of my own Writings. Have you any
knowledge of Publishers in London — The most courteous ?
the least terrific } Still I am asking perhaps all these
questions in vain : your reply will reveal."
To Rev. W. West.
Easter Octave., 1868.
" I am so cut down by the refusal of risk by the Publishers
that but for two small faces that plead to me I should
burn the MS., and strew the ashes in my Churchyard
grounds."
" How happy for you that Nairn is so remote from
degraded England, and her fatal year 1868."
"INVINTIN' OULD TRADITIONS" 575
From Rev. W. West to Rev. R. S. Hawker.
"Nairn. March 10, 1868.
. . . "Your naif confession of the manufacture of legends
reminds me of the reply of the Guide to the seven Churches
at Glindalough to a friend of mine, who asked how he
employed himself in the winter time when there were no
tourists : — ' I be invintin' ould traditions.' "
To J. G. Godwin, Esq.
"June vj., 1868.
" I have written to Maskell and urged him to send my
MS. to you. The rest I must entrust to your judgment and
sympathy. I am too unwell even to suggest. A letter
once a fortnight is nearly all that I can achieve. God shield
me and mine. It would cheer me if my Book could be
made tangible for my two little ones to be able to say ' This
my Father wrote, — these thoughts are his. He had good
images once in his mind.' I wonder at your perseverance
in favour of a fading Body of Men. The End of all things
is at hand. Be ye sober and watch,"
To R. A. Mountjoy, Esq.
"July xxvii., 1868.
" We are in the pangs of a penal drought. God has
commanded the Angels that they shall withhold the former
& the latter rain. What chief sins of the Nation may have
brought on the doom I know not, but they are many.
England has never prospered since the passage of the Poor
Law Bill whereby such direct insult & injury were wrought
upon the Person of the Redeemer of Man. Whatsoever ye
do to the least of these my poor Brethren ye do it unto me.
Lock liim up. Give Him 40Z. of Bread."
576 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
To J. Soniers James, Esq.
" 12 August, 1868.
..." Bude very full. We have had Lady Franklin here,
Sir John's Widow. You will see among the advertisements
a Novel by George Macdonald entitled * Annals of a Sea-
board Parish.' Get it — the Scene is laid on this Coast."
To J. G. Godwin, Esq.
"Octr. 28, 1868.
" My Dear Sir, — I congratulate you with all my heart
on your move upwards in the literary world from Oxford to
the Bute Libraries. How I envy you the researches you
will be able to make in the buried literature of perhaps many
generations. I hope you will acquaint me with the existence
of any learned treasures among the Books of the Marquisate.
Such a position would have great allurement if accessible
for myself and one, too, far more valuable than my most
precarious position here and now."
To Christopher Harris, Esq, of Hayne.
"Novr. XV., 1868.
" AlY Dear Harris,
" Will your Executors open this letter or are you
still alive .'' I have been expecting a letter from you for
months with your specific address of w^hich I am by no
means certain. We have been invalids more or less ever
since our return from Widemouth. The Villa was not the
place for us. I am never so well as when the shadow of my
own Hills darkens around us. Then my foot is on .my
native heath and my name is MacGregor, as Rob Roy said.
Do pray write and say how this Round World vibrates
underneath your tread. Bude is now returned to its normal
estate and Crusoe would be exceedingly surprised at the
print of a },Ian's footstep on the sand. That was a good
DISRAELI AND GLADSTONE 577
speech of Dizzy's at the Lord Mayor's Gorge and very
cheeky also. Is it not most singular that the Premier has
passed me over in his nomination to Canterbury ? I begin
to think I shall never now fulfil my own motto, which is
' Halah ! Mount ' — said by the Hawker to the Falcon on his
wrist.
" Our best love to you all.
" Yrs. faithfully,
" R. S. Hawker."
To R. A. Mount joy, Esq.
"Dec. xj., 1868.
" Jewel of Stursdon refused to vote for Sir J. Trelawny
because he had heard that Mr. Hawker had said that Sir
John was an Infidel.
" Now I don't recollect writing such a piece of intelligence
but if I did I certainly did not expect it to be used as
Capital by the Conservative party,
" I did not vote at all either for Devon or Cornwall,
holding all such low Ambition in the field of Politics in
supreme & entire disdain. We shall now soon see the
results of Gladstone's Scheme. His career is now relieved
from all impediments of Earth & if his Schemes be indeed
sanctioned by God they will prevail. The next Ten Years
will witness a great change in the history of England. The
concurrence of Seasons this approaching Year is strange, &
there is an old Proverb
" ' When Easter falls in Lady day's lap
England will meet with a sore mishap.' "
The following letter to Mrs. Watson proves that at this
time, at any rate, he had no doubts as to the Anglican
Communion : —
2 o
578 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
"Jany. lo, 1869.
. . . " I am sorry to hear that you have not been able to
take your place with others this Christmas at the Holy
Communion. I hope you will be able to repair this neglect
at an early opportunity. Our Saviour commanded it to be
received by all who seek their forgiveness through his Death
and Sacrifice, and when we come to stand before him, as we
shall when we separate from the body, what excuse shall we
make to him for disobedience to his commands ? He made
the duty very plain when he said, ' Except ye eat the flesh
of the Son of Man and drink his Blood ye have no life in
you.' How can we hope for a glad and peaceful life eternal
if we do wilfully neglect so peremptory a saying ? But I
hope that yours is only a temporary omission. You used,
as I remember, to be a Communicant whenever you could.
Believe me, the sin of disobedience is in proportion to the
greatness of the command, and greater than this is there
none."
To the Rev. Roger Granville.^
"Jany. xj., 1869.
" Dear Mr. Granville,
" No death out of my own family could have given
me more real sorrow than that of your dear Father. Our
correspondence, interrupted only by his going abroad, was
interesting and confidential, and I was just about to write to
your Uncle for his Brother's address in order to call your
Father's attention to a volume just published of mine called
' Cornish Ballads,' wherein more than one reference occurs to
the Granvilles of Stowe, of whom your Father and now
yourself are the true and the only lineal Representatives.
^ Now the Rev. Prebendary Granville, Rector of Bideford. He preached
at the dedication of the memorial window to Hawker in Morwenstow Church,
■on 8th Sept^ 1904-
LETTERS FROM FROUDE 579
When Time the Healer shall have enabled you to recur to
such matters I should like to know what you intend to do
with the large MS. Book of the Granville Papers which your
Father brought to my house, when with Mrs. Granville he
paid me a visit and we passed some delightful hours in
comparing our recollections and discoveries. If I can be of
any use in establishing a permanent record of these MS.
collections I shall be at your Service. My notion is that
they should be printed as Mhnoires, as the French say
pour Servir i.e. to assist future History.^ It is a strange
fact that Lord John Thynne imagined the Granville crest-
quarterings to be clarions until I shewed him that Spear-
rests gave the imagery."
From J. A. Froude to R. S. Hawker.
"5 Onslow Gardens, S.W. Jan. 14 [1869].
" Dear Mr. Hawker,
" I have your poems. I cannot trust myself to
say how much I admire them : of the thing called Poetry
now-a-days — which is merely cultivated thought cut up into
lengths — we have an infinite quantity. Your ballads belong
to a kind which cultivation can no more create than it can
create a living flower or tree. Had I time to do you justice
I would gladly undertake a task which would be as delight-
ful to me as any literary occupation could possibly be. At
any rate I will place you in good hands and Fraser^ shall
not be behindhand in doing you honour.
" Most truly yours,
" J. A. Froude. '
' Prebendary Granville has since carried out this suggestion and published
a History of the Granville family.
-' Fraser s Magn-^ine, of which Froude was editor. The number for Novr
1869 contained a long and kindly notice of 'Cornish Ballads.'
58o LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
On July 7, 1869, Froude writes again : —
" Dear Mr. Hawker,
" When your letter came at the beginning- of
April, I had just started to read the history of the Armada
in the Spanish Archives — The letter was not sent after me
— so that I fear you must have thought me sadly wanting in
courtesy — I have now returned to my post as Editor of
Fraser's — and I shall be most happy if I can be of any use
to you in that capacity. You yourself know best the sub-
jects on which you can write to good purpose. If you
would mention one or two I could tell you at once
whether they would suit us. Whatever you write will I
am sure be curious original & clever."
The Daily Telegraph, of 26 April 1869, contained the
following remarkable criticism of ' Cornish Ballads ' : —
" ' The Guest \sic'\ of the Sangraal ' is a poem evidently
inspired by the high echoes of Mr. Tennyson's harp . . .
all who care for * the days of Arthur,' and the hundred
lovely legends of Tintagel and Camelot, will find in it a
nautical guide-book full of the genius locoruin."
This was no doubt written by one of Matthew Arnold's
"Young lions," roaring as mildly as any sucking dove.
The first edition of ' Cornish Ballads ' did not bring
much profit to its author, for on 25 August 1869, he writes
to Mr. Godwin : — " My book is a failure, and I acquiesce in
my usual doom." About this time he fell into moods of
despondency, and his health also began to fail. On 18
Sept. 1869 he writes to a neighbour, the Rev. W. Waddon
Martyn : —
" I will not say, forgive me for my silence. You must do
that ; but how can I state my miseries .'' First of all, for a
fortnight I have been a cripple from sciatica, only able to
creep bent double from room to room. On Sunday night
WRECK OF THE AVONMORE 581
a hurricane smote my house at midnight, burst in the whole
of our bedroom window at a blow, and drove us out of bed
to dress and go down. Two lights of the Drawing-Room
window are broke to smash. No man or boy in the house.
Well, we had a bed made up in the servant's room till the
morning. At Morning tidings that a large vessel was
ashore in Vicarage Bay, just under the hut. I was put into
the gig, and carried out. Found the crew in death-horrors.
Rocket apparatus arrived, and 1 5 men were dragged ashore
alive. The other seven (Blacks) were drowned among my
rocks. Guess my state. The whole glebe alive with
people — 7 corpses to come ashore for burial. Graves already
dug, and shrouds prepared ; but none yet. The Cargo,
coals, 1600 tons, vessel 1900 tons, largest ever seen here.
Broken up to-night. My path down is now made for
donkeys. What can be saved is to be brought up and sold,
and the broken ship. Cannot you get help for one Sunday
and come over } It would be the act of an Angel to come
to my rescue. You have your house, and you could do
much that I ought to do and cannot. Come, I entreat you.
God bless you, and help me ; for I am indeed in much
anguish, and my poor Pauline worn out."
The wrecked vessel turned out to be the Avonniore of
Bristol, bound from Cardiff to Monte- Video.
To Airs. Watson.
"Octr. 12, 1869,
"The Scene on my Cliffs is appalling. The Wreck will
not be cleared away for weeks or months. There is a vast
heap of broken timber Sails and pebbles under which the
men say by the fearful smell there is another corpse. But
until the Sea shall wash it low we cannot extricate the dead
man. Four Black men are still in the Water and from the
Sharks that begin to haunt the Scene we think they are
582 LIFE OF R. S. HA|WlKER
rending and eating the dead : they come close to the shore
with their great dorsal fins above water. May God have
mercy on us all, for such scenes are harrowing close to one's
own abode. There is not one consoling thought.
" You have seen the appointment of Dr. Temple to the See
of Exeter — a very Infidel writer, one of the Authors of * Essays
and Reviews ' and one who will be hostile both to High
Church and Low Church — to all who [jbelieve in the
Divinity of Our Blessed Saviour. So from him I have no
hope of even forbearance. There is such an outcry against
him that they say the Dean and Chapter will dispute the
nomination. He will of course take Wellcombe from me
and then my ruin is inevitable."
To Mrs. Watson.
"Octr. 24, 1869.
" This day week just as I was going to Morning Church
news arrived of another dead body lying among the Rocks
at the foot of my Cliff. Cann my good Churchwarden
called out of Church half a dozen Men and caused them to
be the bearers and bringers of the dead. They were a long
time in fulfilling that most repelling duty. He had been in
the Water for one month and four days and was disfigured poor
fellow and broken exceedingly. I was however enabled to
identify the corpse as that of the Second Mate because he
was white and all the remaining dead are black. He was
very tall and young (19) and it was a great comfort for his
Parents to learn that his body had been found. He had a
very high character on board the vessel and was said to be
far above the common in education and demeanour. You
will be grieved to hear that I again gave way in the Church-
yard from emotion and indeed from terror, for the risk of
perilous disease from the infected atmosphere is very great.
I was compelled to rest on the sofa and bed for three or four
DR. TEMPLE 583
days and I was utterly incapable of conversation or duty all
that time. Four of the drowned are still in the Water in
my little bay and every hour teems with apprehension. The
Coroner at last was moved with compassion and instead of
coming to hold an inquest he sent me an order to bury the
dead immediately.
" I feel deeply grieved for you amid all my own distress
and I pray for you earnestly every day. I do not think such
a correspondence as ours ever occurred before. Such a tissue
of sorrows and anxieties on both sides and on mine such a
strange history of unusual events.
"There is a great uproar in the Diocese about the New
Bishop Dr. Temple. He is assailed on all sides as a Heretic
in opinion and as very lax in his Church doings. I need
not say that I take no part in these discussions. I shall
only be too grateful if he allows me to go on as I have been
allowed by the former Bishop, but this I can hardly hope.
I hold Wellcombe by no legal authority but only by the
Episcopal word as it is called, and as he and Dr. Phillpotts
were bitterly opposed lo each other I must look to share in
the odium attached to the nominees of the late Diocesan."
To J. G. Godwin, Esq.
"Dec. xi., 1869.
" Dr. Temple is near and I for one expect collision and
strife. God shield us all. My friend Robartes is to be a
Peer with an old family title revived. I wonder if he knows
the old legend that Lords seldom live long this side the
Tamar,"
To Mrs. Watson.
" Deer. 12, 1869.
..." Nothing yet is known about the New Bishop except
that he is said to be very stern and unyielding, taking his
584 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
Stand more upon the law than the Gospel. Unmarried and
a Schoolmaster, as he has long been at Rugby, rather than a
Bishop. He is to be consecrated on the 21st., St. Thomas
the Doubting Apostle's day, and then comes down to reside.
I tremble at his approach as I have often told you why."
Hawker gives a description of Dr. Temple from the
account of a neighbouring clergyman who had been to
Exeter. " He describes his manner as most amazing. He
slaps his Clergy on the back and calls them good fellows
just like a big schoolboy. His voice is very metallic and
his continual laugh most harsh and shrill. He inquired for
me and told him he recollected me many years ago but did not
say where, I suppose in Oxford. From his sermons and
speeches, apart from all doctrine, I should think his mind
much below mediocrity. His style is very meagre and
commonplace — altogether an entire failure."
At an Archdeacon's Visitation soon after the appointment
of Dr. Temple the clergy were discussing the question as to
the attitude which they ought to take up towards their new
bishop. Hawker, who was present, said that it w^as their duty,
like the sons of the patriarch, to hide the theological nakedness
of their reverend Father in God. He ended a witty speech
with the words, uttered in a tone of the profoundest gravity,
' My brethren, we must cover Noah ! ' "
In spite of doctrinal differences, however, his relations with
Dr. Temple were at all times cordial, and his gloomy fore-
bodings about Welcombe proved unfounded. He did not
join in the petty discourtesies offered to the new Bishop by
hostile clergy in the diocese. A little incident will show this.
At one of his first Visitations Dr. Temple was robing
among other clergy in the vestry. They all pointedly
shunned him ; but Hawker, who was the oldest present, when
he saw the situation, at once went forward to help the
Bishop with his vestments.
HAWKER MEETS DR. TEMPLE 585
The Vicar himself describes a similar occasion in the
following letter : —
To W. RowCy Esq.
"April xij., 1872.
. . . " The Charge full of Nonconformist grievances which
we must redress — one that their righteous limbs are fettered
in Breeches Trousers and dress Coats, while we flaunt &
strut in gown & Cassock. So they pray that we may be com-
pelled to abjure robes, not that they may wear them ; this
their meekness disclaims. They complain also that the
Clergy are too poetic & diffusive in their private prayers &
ask that such usage may be restrained. F. Exr. thinks their
pleas reasonable. They do not, he put it, wish to copy your
Forms but that you should abjure them for your Brothers'
Sake. After Church Town Hall again, Clergy chiefly in the
Streets ; I should think that at least 40 men & Women asked
to be introduced to me. Enough to turn one's head. Dinner
ordered at \ past 2. Time came — no Bp. ; half an hour no Bp.
At last he came. I met him at the Door and asked him to
relieve me from attendance at Lanson next week having
shown myself here. The old Man was very agreeable &
gave gracious leave. He then said ' But you will dine with
us.' Replied, ' 25 miles to travel to get home. Dinner
now too late.' So I started & got home at 8. Worn nearly
out. On the whole / never- heard any Bp. so 7iniversally
repulsed & assailed, & if I were Vain I should say no Common
Clergyman was ever more petted than I yesterday."
Another time he met Dr. Temple at a Confirmation.
" Tlie Bishop," he writes, "was civil but hard. A Man
without a tear." ^
' The Rev. Prebendary Hinjjeston-RanLlolph writes: — "This was a mis-
take. He was easily moved. I have seen tears running tiown his cheeks
often."'
586 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
It is evident from his letters that the Vicar found Dr.
Temple's appointment a sore stumbling block to his trust in
the Church of England. It was another step in that
rationalising process which had resulted in the justification
of Colenso, and which was so distasteful to a mind like
Hawker's that held fast to the literal meaning of the Bible
and the ancient dogmas of the Church. His difficulties
were increased by the appointment of Tait to Canterbury.
Doubts were raised as to whether Tait had ever been
properly baptised; and Hawker, who attached such paramount
importance to that sacrament, was more troubled by this
than can well be realised by those who do not share his
point of view. He also considered that Tait exceeded his
authority as Archbishop. In January 1870 he writes
to Dr. Lee : —
" Tait claims to be a Pope, and his provincials allow
it, without rebuke or protest. He acts, and they register
his will, in unanticipated and shameful silence. In Cape-
town, and India, and Canada, he actively interferes, without
jurisdiction ; and superior men bow the head as well as the
knee. But he is a Pope, without Cardinals for councillors
or Congregations for advisers. His beardless and unfledged
chaplains know nothing, and can advise nothing ; save to
grease the creaking wheels of the Establishmentarian coach
well, and to sacrifice everything which concerns the World
to come, in order to make things more pleasant and
comfortable for the World that is."
At this time Hawker collected into a volume his recent
contributions to magazines. On 23 Feb. 1870 he writes to
Mr. Godwin : —
..." I am about to publish a prose volume, of reprints
chiefly, a 5/0 book as I suppose. It will bear the name of
' Footprints of the Former Men in Old Cornwall' J.
Russell Smith is to give me ;^io for leave to print 1000
PUBLICATION OF 'FOOTPRINTS' 587
copies. My poverty and not my will consented to this
meagre pay."
To J. G. Godwin, Esq.
" March 2, 1870.
•" My Dear Sir,
" Thank you for your kind letter. It has soothed
my mind very much. I thought I had hardly a friend
left until I read your silent efforts on my behalf.
The Bargain you made for me with Parker was far better
than mine with Smith, but there were reasons which impelled
me to accept his offer. I have been for long so prostrate
that except my letters I can write nothing. I am the Wreck
of the Vessel now. R. J. King advised me to get a list of
subscribers and take on myself the risk, but that would have
postponed all payment too long for me to wait for it. All
my griefs through life and my terrors have flowed from one
Sole source the want of L-S-D. I shall die the Victim of
this great Sorrow. Very often my whole future hope hinges
on the temporary acquisition of ;^5 or £10 and many very
narrow escapes have I lately had. I have never appealed to
you and I will candidly say that until your last letter opened
my eyes I held that you were disinclined to sympathize with
my distress. I beg your pardon now. . . "
To W. Rowe, Esq.
"June 26, 1870.
" My Dear Sir,
" In the scuffle of the Visitation (What other Word
can describe it) I failed to find you after Church : after dinner,
when I had gone through my usual annoyance, a Speech
on my legs, I went in for one minute at the so-called meet-
ing of the Clergy, but it was impossible to bear it. I found
R. K. making a Speech in favour of appointing lay instructors
588 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
on the model and precedent of the Friar Preachers of the
Middle Ages ! ! I went with Pauline to Thorn's and stayed
hours ! having my Photograph taken in various attitudes ! ! "
To the Rev. W. West.
"July v., 1870.
" I have not heard from you since I caused to be sent to
you and your friends my ' Cornish Ballads ' And now that I
have issued another volume to the World I hardly know
whether you take interest in my Books or me. Still I send
you as a matter of course my Prospectus, and I shall be glad
to hear from you if you care to write. My own three small-
daughters and our constant anxieties about them make me
feel a natural sympathy with yours and you. But ' children
must be paid for/ is the omnibus notice in London, And
the blessing of their arrival is largely counterbalanced by the
terrors that they bring — My dear little wife's Polish blood
carries her through far better than her Husband can bear
The Toil & turmoil cark & care,
" New griefs that coming hours unfold
And sad remembrance of the old."
To J. G. Godwin, Esq.
"July v., 1870.
" My Dear Sir,
" I cannot better occupy St. Morwenna's day
than by writing to a former and I would fain hope a
future friend. . . Of myself I have nothing pleasant to
relate. My Second Book is already a failure and from the
same cause the languor of the Publisher. The doom of the
unimportant is upon me and it is in vain to struggle. . . No,
my fate is fixed. Here on this Star nothing of any palm :
it is reserved for another Sphere a far-away world. I have
l--,:<v a f ':,'.',• I'v S. rhoyi:. "/ /:.
KciiiiRi ■' I I I'll I.N iia\vki:r.
.\-.-,i .....
FAILURE OF 'FOOTPRINTS' 589
literally nothing to say. . . my life is absorbed by two eras —
before the letter-bag time, terror, after it grief. All my
correspondence has ceased. Friends I have none but instead
of them Booksellers."
A year or two later he writes to Mr, H. Sewell Stokes,^
another Cornish poet, " My ' Footprints ' have had but
a sluggish Sale. , , You are valued in your life time. I
may be perhaps hereafter,"
'Author of ' Restormel, a Legend of Piers Gaveston,' 'Memories, a
Life's Epilogue,' 'Poems of Later Years,' 'The Vale of Lanherne' (all
published by Longmans, Green & Co.), and ' The Gate of Heaven, The
Plaint of Morewenstow, and other Verses,' published by Liddell & Son,
Bodmin.
CHAPTER XXV
1870-1874
Occasional Verses — ' Aurora ' — Austin Dobson — The
Franco-Prussian War — Mr. Spender's Reminiscences —
The Bishop of London at Morwenstow — Letters of
Condolence — Prayer for the Dead — Prayer for the
Prince of Wales — Church Restoration — A Great Storm
— Letter to H. Sewell Stokes — Illness — Rev. John
Rawlins — Anecdotes.
After the disappointing result of his pubHshing ventures
the Vicar confined his Hterary efforts to occasional verses,
and wrote no more prose articles. " I must give up com-
petition with the writers of these days," he remarks gloomily
to Mr. Godwin, "and confine myself to newspapers for
g'ratuitous pieces. As soon as my letter-bag ceases to cut
me down daily like a blow I will think of your suggestion
and try to undertake another Quest," But this intention he
never put into effect. A friend in London, Mr. R. A.
Mountjoy, brought his poems to the notice of Mr. Austin
Dobson, with reference to whom he writes on 10 Nov., 1870,
" Will you find an opportunity to convey to Mr. Dobson my
delight at the kind appreciation he bestowed on my ' Croon
on Hennacliff' and 'The Round.' ['Queen Guennivar's
Round.'] If ever the chance should occur it would give me
great pleasure to make his acquaintance."
" I send you slips of my verses," he writes to the same
590
LETTER TO AUSTIN DOBSON 591
friend, " interred in a Provincial Paper. I have sent copies
to Mr. Dobson. Thank you for your efforts though fruit-
less. Tell me if my 'Aurora' is intelligible to your friend."
Again, " In my * Aurora ' it is my great vi^ish to instruct, to
teach my own countrymen what they ought to know." This
poem had been suggested by a brilliant display of the Aurora
Borealis.
" I adopted a theory," he writes, " of the time of Origen,
that the scene of the Intermediate State is the hollow centre
of the earth, and that the Northern Lights are flashed from
the opening of the Gates at the Poles."
Mr. Austin Dobson has preserved Hawker's letter to
him, which is as follows: —
Morwenstow. Novr. xviij., 1870.
" Dear Sir,
"Allow me to offer you slips of the unfortunate
Poem which you so very kindly proffered for insertion to
Macmillan. It has found its level in a provincial paper.
Still I am much obliged to you for your unavailing effort.
I admired, without knowing the author, your verses
* Before Sedan.' I am,
" Yours faithfully,
" R. S. Hawker.
In a letter to Mr. John Lane Mr. Dobson writes : —
" I cannot now remember how our correspondence first
arose. But I know that the poem Mr. Hawker refers to
was that called ' Aurora,' and that I had sent it to Mac-
inilla^is Magazine without success. I had long admired
some of his pieces, and find I had copied ' Queen Guen-
nivar's Round* and a ' Croon on Hennacliff into a MS.
book when they first came out, anonymously, in All the
Year Round in Sept., 1864. Probably I told him this."
592 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
Another subject which inspired Hawker at this time was the
Franco-Prussian War. " My own sympathies," he writes on
30 July 1870, "go with France and her Emperor," Again,
on 12 Jan. 1871, "you will see soon in some second-rate
Newspaper my ' Carol of the Pruss,' in which I have tried
to embody what must be the thoughts and wishes of the
King of Prussia at this time. I sent it to Mr. Spender, who
is the Editor of more than one paper at the Central Press
Office, 1 1 2, Strand, and as I have received a Proof to revise
I suppose it will appear somwhere."
Mr. Spender contributed his recollections of Morwenstow
to the Western Morning News of 18 Aug. 1875 : —
" It is a dozen years almost this very day," he writes,
" since, weary and footsore on a walking tour through North
Cornwall, I found myself in this charming spot, and tasted
its owner's hospitality.^ One rarely looks upon a finer man
than he was then, with his venerable silver hair and mighty
chest and shoulders. . . . The church, which he did much
to restore, used to be open all day, and the parson himself
would toll the bell for daily prayers. Altogether it was a
bit of 17th Century England intercalated with the latter
half of the 19th. . . . Mr. Hawker had an almost unrivalled
faculty for projecting himself back into a past age, and losing
his identity in the people of whom he wrote. Nor was he
known by his books merely. The man himself was unique.
There where he could hear only the thundering surges of
the Atlantic, and the wild plaintive cry of the seabird — in
that remote ' land beyond railways,' far more inaccessible
^ Mr. Spender, an uncle of Mr. J. A. Spender, the present editor of The
Westminster Gazette, who writes : — " My uncle Was editor and chief proprietor
of The Western Morning A^etus, a well-known journalist who practically invented
the London Letter. No doubt he saw Hawker many times. He and his two
eldest sons were drowned together while bathing on the Cornish coast in
1878." Mr. J. A. Spender visited Morwenstow in 1873 with his father, Dr.
Spender, of Bath.
VISIT OF BISHOP JACKSON 593
than the Land's End itself — he lived the life of an English
parson, such as parsons used to be in the days of George
Herbert and Bishop Ken."
A letter to Mr. Godwin, dated 4 Oct., 1871, relates two
incidents that happened at this time.
" Sunday was a heavy day! Poor Jewel the Sexton at
Wellcombe died on Thursday and I fixed to bury him after
the Service. But in Church, five minutes after I had begun
my Sermon on the Young Man of Nain, a mass of the Roof-
ing about four feet square fell suddenly on the people below.
There was a shout screams and a rush. I was calm but
thoroughly frightened. Still under the Sounding Board I
was safe and I directed every body to keep quiet and they
did so. I told them to cross the aisle and leave the
dangerous side and then I commenced ' And as I was say-
ing, Brethren ' &c &c. But I was personally afraid that
more would follow. Luckily it was not the Wood work
but only laths and the plaister of years thickened. To-day
another start. I was sitting in the smoking room with
Inge the Kilkhampton Curate when a dark man in a wide-
rimmed hat came down the path, rung and sent in his
card 'The Bishop of London.' So I was fairly caught.
Four or Five daughters came with him. He apologized
for not having paid his respects to me before, &c &c.
They stayed two hours saw the Church and went away
apparently pleased. I had had two invitations to meet him
at Dinner . . . and refused them both."
The visitor was Bishop Jackson, who had succeeded
Tait when the latter was translated to Canterbury. The
Vicar and the Bishop were evidently not in sympathy on
matters theological. Hawker gives an amusing account of
a letter in which he described the interview to his Roman
Catliolic friend, Mr. Maskcll.
" I have written Maskell and told him of the visit I
2 p
594 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
received from the successor of Bonner. I said ' He has
arranged every preliminary for your Stake and Chain.
The event is to come off in the middle of the Castle Green
at Bude [i.e., in front of Mr. Maskell's house]. You are
to be brought out clad in a loose Gown with all your
Works fastened fiendishly around your Waist. A. is to
preach, which is very bitter. I asked the Bishop for your
ashes ; but he refused, saying ' With Martyrs of that kind
there is no sediment whatever."
To Dean Cowie^
"Octr. xj., 1 87 1.
" My Dear Cowie,
" In a letter from Maskell a month ago he
said ' I suppose you have heard of Miss Cowie's excellent
marriage.' Now how should I hear except by a bottle
picked up on the shore with a message from you just
about to founder with all hands ? I had therefore to
write to Carnsew to inquire, and from him I had a con-
firmation of the happy tidings with the name. God bless
her and hers, and make her husband as blessed as Pauline
has made me — more no man could say. Shall we ever
meet more ? I know not, unless you come ashore from
the wreck of the vessel which should have borne you to
your degradation, a Colonial See. Do, I pray you, write.
I have seen a near Friend of yours — successor to Bonner.
I did not pay homage to him as perhaps I ought, but he
made a visit here last week and apologised for not having
done so before — why I know not. I was glad to hear
that you were one of his nominees at St. Paul's pulpit. I
am in the midst of School Horrors. You could do me no
greater kindness than to refer me to a Master : certificated :
and Mistress. Can you and will you try ? Now write.
Let me boast, '■ Dives pauper em me petit.' "
^
■ I'UKiit ry Ki.hiitoiui. ill .-//,■ /,>.v,>,.>\/,'/; ,>/M/r. A:/t\dMaJ<,:i
LETTERS OF CONDOLENCE 595
To J. Somers James^ Esq.
"Dec. ij., 1 87 1.
" My Dear Sommers,
" The mournful tidings in Mr. Coomb's letter has
as I need not say shocked and shaken me exceedingly. It
is but a few days ago that I had a hopeful letter from your
dear father in reply to my inquiry about his illness. And
now the most valued of my Relatives is suddenly gone from
our midst. I will not dwell on the true Affection that existed
between us, for that is well known to you all. He loved me
very faithfully and I him. It is a comfort to look back on
his kind, consistent and amiable life, and to have no remem-
brance of a painful nature to recall in all our intercourse of
brotherly years. I shall pray earnestly for him and so will
you. When I am better able to write I will do so again —
meanwhile God give you strength to bear your bitter and
sudden grief."
Another letter on the same subject, to Mr. Rowe, gives an
exposition of the Vicar's view as to prayers for the dead : —
"Dec. iv., 1871.
" I prayed for him the Evening your letter came, and I
shall pray for him Every day. A Comfort to him in the
Communion of Saints that nothing else can give. The
Scoundrels that led the Great Revolt to justify if they could
their Robbery of the lands given to sustain Prayer for the
Dead, cut away every wire that linked us to the unseen
world, and bade us forget the dead as soon as they were
buried out of our sight. But I thank God for my whole
life I have never lost the link that bound me to those who
were gone before, nor would I forego this intercourse for all
the Preferment England could bestow. . . . Again God bless
you, my dear surviving friend."
Tlie Vicar believed in prayer for the living as well as for
the dead. Our present King (then Prince of Wales)
596 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
was ill and lying at the point of death. " The Prince," writes
Hawker on 14 Deer. 1871, "still fights the Battle of Life.
Does it not appal you to see all that Skill and Money and
Rank can do on the one side of his Bed and on the other
Azrael the Angel of Death .? What a lesson ! And no
prayer for him until he had been 21 days ill. I prayed for
him in Church on the 3rd of December my own muffled
birthday and again on the loth — on the 12th I received the
Form such as it is. It was the Second Person of the
Trinity visible in Human Form who was the Great Healer
of the Nations. It was He who cured the Sick and raised
the dead. He is to this day the middle nature between
God and Man. Yet in all these prayers he is utterly
ignored and unnamed. Socrates might have written and
used the Episcopal Prayers of England — Pagans to a Man."
Hawker's prayer was published in John Bull: —
" O Lord Jesu Christ ! Thou second Person of the glorious
and undivided Trinity ! Thou who wert once blended here upon
earth thirty and three years with the visible form and nature of a
man ! Hear us, Thou Healer of the nations, hear ! In and by
thy manhood, built from an earthly mother's veins, and taken
into God, Thou didst assuage all manner of disease, and even
death, by Thy voice, Thy touch. Thy silent command. Thou art
the self-same Redeemer still ! the unalterable God ! We call
upon Thee for Albert Edward, the first-born Prince and hope of
the Royal House of England, the future King, beneath Thy will,
of our native and natural land ! Say but the word which Thou
didst utter in Cana of Galilee, 'Thy Son liveth,' and in the same
hour the fever shall leave Thy servant, our Prince, and he shall
be made whole. Restore him, O Lord, to the yearning hearts of
his people ; to the wife of his youth ; and to the Royal lady
weeping over her child, her child. Even so. Lord Jesu, and by
the memory of Thine own great impulse at the gate of the city
called Nain, and of her who won Thy latest love upon the Cross,
deliver him to his mother. Hear us, Oh healer of the nations,
hear ! and grant our trusting prayer to God the Trinity through
Thy manhood, Jesu Christ our Lord. Amen."
PRAYERS FOR PRINCE OF WALES 597
Hawker's Thanksgiving on the Prince's recovery was also
published in John Bull. Against a cutting of this he has
written, " Said in my Church on the 25th of Deer. 1871 " : —
• ' O Jesu Master ! my Lord and my God ! — We utter our
earnest and faithful Thanksgiving to Thee for that Thou hast
heard and granted our prayer. We besought Thee to have mercy
on thy Servant, Albert Edward, our Prince of the Royal House of
England, in his perilous disease. Thou hast fulfilled our vows.
In thy mid-nature between God the Trinity and mankind, Thy
heart, human and Divine, hath been the channel of a nation's
entreaty and a people's benediction ! Thou hast given back to
the Princely sufferer strength and hope and life. Command,
O mighty Redeemer, that he, Hke those whom Thou didst make
whole when Thou wert visible here among men, may arise from
his bed healed and forgiven ! Let him follow Thy voice and be
Thine for ever ! Blend him, O Lord, and his wife, tender and
true, with his gracious mother, our Queen, into Thy house and
lineage of heaven ; so that, at the last, with penitence for all sin,
and trust in that which Thou didst suffer upon the Cross, this
Kingly race of England may be gathered into the realm of
eternal pardon and peace in the kingdom of God.
" ' Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the
world, even Jesus Christ our Lord.' — Amen."
On 3 Jan. 1872 he writes to Mr. Godwin : —
"On the 24th and 25th ultimo I said the Service six
times, one being Eucharistic, and I preached five Sermons
all above my usual mark they say. One on the Record of
John I wish I could recall for you because thoughts came
into my mind in Church such as I never conceived before,
and they were tinged with the breath of a distant Shore.
On Xmas Day we had 40 people at dinner and gave away
the cold meat and pudding next day to 30 more. We
sold from our stock to accomplish these things and we
shall be requited I am sure by a far-away friend on his Pay
598 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
Night. I wrote and rehearsed a Thanskgiving for the Prince
of Wales which made one or two rough Farmers cry."
To Dean Cowie,
" Morwenstow. Octr. 30, 1872.
•* I learn from the papers that one very earnest wish
of my heart has been fulfilled and that a step in your
upward career has been accorded you in the Deanery of
Manchester. I offer you my sincere gratulation and
faithful sympathy at this success. But you are not to halt
upon your thigh, remember, or stand still. Other and
loftier points of elevation are before you and my augury
will not be fulfilled until you take your seat in the House of
Lords as the Lord Bishop of . It is a satisfaction
to watch from the loopholes of retreat the elevation of
friends and no regret to myself that I am left on the shore
at ebb of Sea. Whatsoever could be offered to me I could
not enjoy. My House is thick with sorrows hard and
heavy as the Nether Millstone to bear. My poor dear
Wife a chronic and crippled sufferer from rheumatic gout —
my children, it is true, bright and healthful, but their
future! — God help them — what I cannot bear to look on —
And I myself a living death — in bondage to a daily dread
lest . . . but I will not grieve you. One day you will hear
tidings and grieve over your friend. But now Good Night.
I would say God bless you but without contradiction it is
the less that is blessed of the greater. Yours, dear Cowie,
sadly and faithfully,"
In this year the Vicar was engaged on a second restora-
tion of his Church, and issued the following appeal, dated
"Ascension Day, 1872": —
" Jesus said — * Ye have done it unto Me ! '
" The ancient Church of Morwenstow on the Northern
CHURCH RESTORATION 599
Shore of Cornwall, notwithstanding a large outlay by the
present Vicar, has fallen into dilapidation and disrepair. A
great part of the Oak Shingle Roof requires to be relaid :
The Walls must be pointed anew : and the Windows
Benches and Floor ought to be restored. To fulfil all these
purposes a Sum amounting to at least Five Hundred
Pounds will be required. In the existing state of the
Church-Rate-Law it would be inexpedient and ineffectual
to rely on the local succour of the Parishioners, although
there is reason to confide that the usual levy of a Penny in
the Pound per Annum (i6jC), now granted in aid of other
resources, would never be withheld.
" But this Church from the Interest attached to its extreme
antiquity and its striking features of ecclesiastical attraction
is visited every year by One or Two Hundred Strangers
from distant places and from Bude Haven in the immediate
neighbourhood. It appears therefore to the Vicar and his
Friends that an appeal for the sympathy and succour of all
who value and appreciate the solemn Beauty and the sacred
associations of such a Scene might happily be fraught with
success, . . .
Writing to Mr. Godwin a year later the Vicar says : —
"Baring-Gould has been corresponding with me for some
time about my Foundress St. Morwenna. He is writing
her life among his lives of the Saints, and he has unearthed
many curious legends about her and her times. One
to me very satisfactory discovery is that She is buried
in my Church. The Spot is as yet undefined, but when
St Aubyn has trenched the ground, as he proposes, to lay
down 18 inches of Concrete over the whole extent, the
chances are that we may discover her Reliques. If incased
as is not unlikely in lead it is just possible that she may
be even yet unchanged and we may look on the features
of one whose memory I have already evoked from oblivion
6oo LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
and caused her name to be borne by a daughter of Lord
Clinton, of Sir Paul Molesworth, and my own bright
girl."
In a letter dated July, 1874 Hawker says: — "The
Prince of Wales in reply to my letter has allotted to our
Restoration £2^,, but to be paid when the Work approaches
completion. This will defer payment to the days of the
next Incumbent of Morwenstow."
During the progress of the restoration, a great storm
swept over Morwenstow. " Yesterday," writes the Vicar,
on 10 Deer. 1872, "I had reached Hollacombe Gate on
my way to Wellcombe where and when a Land Cyclone
broke over the carriage. With difficulty we reached
Wellcombe and there it did indeed rage such a Gale I
hardly ever remember. It was very difficult to get the
horses to face it going home and over Crimp we thought
again and again that the Carriage would turn over. I
was obliged to be helped by the Men up to Church and
there it seemed as if the Tower would come down upon
us. Luckily Tape had finished thatching Reed over the
leaky places in the roof and no rain came in. We put
64 Nitches of Reed with bands of wood to keep the
Roof dry till the Spring when we shall I hope begin to
restore. Well, all the evening the gale raged against
and all round our house. We thought without exaggera-
tion that every window would beat in. As it was, parts
of nearly every window were smashed, and we with W. Olde
to help were busy till midnight nailing up boards &c to
keep out the Rain and hail. Our Window was blocked
up with 3 or 4 Rugs baize Curtains &c : yet nothing
kept out the Wind and Rain — a large piece was smashed.
Such a Night. Pauline had her usual night's sleep
broken by pain and I mine of horrors. But every morning
I am up soon after 5, sometimes before, pacing the
A GREAT STORM 6oi
passages like a troubled ghost. At 5 I called John Olde
who slept here and sent him off to Combe for H. Tape.
When the Men came in their tidings were sad. At Cross
Town every house except ' The Bush ' is ripped — the
Poorhouse nearly bare. The people had been up all
night. Only two or three rooms covered. Strange that
last week Pauline and I were planning to lay out all that
we could spare at Xmas on roofing in that house.
Indeed an estimate must now be made of the repair,
and somehow or other I must raise the money to keep
the roof over the Poor. But not only there, throughout
the Parish roofs are ripped Chimneys toppled down and
mows of corn hurled over. I dread to hear the news
from the middle of the Parish and Chapel. As I have
said for years the Weather of guilty England is penal
Weather and the fiend is loose. So Morwenstow is like
the Prophet's roll written within and without with lamenta-
tion and mourning and woe. Our Cattle are, thank God,
all safe.
..." The Parish is in a state of great excitement about
the Gale and old Tom Lang thinks it is not all quite right.
Perhaps Sally ? ^ All the old people declare that they never
remember anything like it before nor do I. The Avon-
more Storm was much less furious. But no news of any
Wreck yet, altho' last week there were at least half a
dozen between Padstow and the Land's End. All the
Bunnies are well to-night — our bright spot is their cot at
night."
To J. G. Godwin, Esq.
"Aug. xij., 1873.
..." The Honble T. Edwardes ^ Son of Lord Kensing-
ton is staying at Eastaway and he altho' ill is very kind in
' Sally Found, the old woman supposed to have the evil eye,
» Hawker wrote 'Impromptu Lines,' to Mr. Edwardes' little daughter.
6o2 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
help. He always reads Prayers and I have so far managed
to preach. But I suffer from the exertion sadly."
In his later years the Vicar suffered a great deal from
eczema. "Although I cannot move much during the
week," he writes in Octr. 1873, "I have gone through my
three Services up to this time with other duty. I am
bound for the sake of the dear faces around me to exert
myself to the last. . . . My Roof becomes more uncertain
a Shelter every day. The only solace amid all is that my
three dear Children are healthful and happy and un-
conscious of our griefs. I trust that He who created and
infused an immortal Soul into each of their sweet bodies
will not forsake them when their natural protectors are
not. ... I am making great efforts to get Subscriptions
for the Church. ... I should not like to leave the Church
in debt when I go hence. But what can one so helpless as
I am do } I am so weak that I can hardly write these
lolling words to you instead of my usual autograph."
As time went on the Vicar's anxieties increased, for early
in 1874 his wife had a dangerous illness. "The scene
darkens," he writes to Mr. Rowe. " I am indeed the
Victim of Morwenstow. I entreat you stand by me to the
last, not far off, I fear. Pray pray think for me, for I am
incapable of coherent thought." Mr. Rowe sent up one of
his servants to nurse Mrs. Hawker, and the Vicar writes to
him : — " The gift of a thousand pounds although very
welcome would neither have done me so much good nor
have elicited more gratitude than your and dear Mary's loan
of Mrs. Marshall. It was an act of real religion self-
sacrifice and ' kindness with God in it ' — my translation of
Caritas in the Gospel. I will not weaken our thankfulness
by diluting it into words and therefore I will simply record
my firm belief that under God Mrs. Marshall rescued
Pauline from death. After what has passed, I should
"THE VICTIM OF MORWENSTOW" 603
deem it a crime to allow Mrs. Marshall to walk a yard of
her homeward way. No — wait and she shall come to you
like Agag delicately & in proper time."
He was at last obliged to have some assistance in his
clerical duties. The Rev. John Rawlins, now Vicar of St.
Andrew's, Willesden, and at that time Chaplain at Powder-
ham Castle, went to Morwenstow at the instance of a mutual
friend and stayed some months at the Vicarage. "As per-
manent Curate," writes Hawker in his wholesale way, " He
is with some peculiarities the Person to fit in here of the
whole English Clergy the best for me."
The Vicar, says Mr. Rawlins, was very much broken in
health, and so lame as to be hardly capable of fulfilling his
duties. The church was in a sad state of disrepair. The
oak shingles on the roof had decayed and in wet weather
the rain poured through. The floor also was full of holes,
and there was some danger of treading through on to the
coffins beneath. The chancel was very untidy. The floor
was covered with matting, and strewn with dried herbs and
the refuse of a former harvest festival. The altar-cloth had
become threadbare and was thick with grease from the two
candles that were always lighted for service. Mr. Rawlins
burnt it. The Vicar was too ill and unsettled in his mind
to give heed to these things. One day Mr. Rawlins deter-
mined to have a cleansing. He took a dust-pan and broom
and filled two barrow-loads with the sweepings of the
chancel. He then wheeled the barrow down to the dining-
room window of the Vicarage, where the Vicar was sitting.
The old man was much shocked : he had not realized the
condition into which his church had fallen. But he did
not request Mr. Rawlins to seat himself on the top of the
rubbish, in order to make the pile complete, according
to a story told in Mr. Baring-Gould's memoir. " In that
book," remarked Mr. Rawlins, with a smile, " I appear as
6o4 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
the domineering curate ! " It would not have been easy to
domineer over Robert Hawker.
The pulpit was very high, and was entered by a narrow
door through the screen. Mr. Rawlins lowered the pulpit,
whereat the Vicar was much perturbed. " I always regarded
the sermon," he said, " as tidings from on high."
At that time the regular congregation of Morwenstow
numbered but few ! The dissenting Chapels drew the
majority of the people. On the occasion of a revivalist
meeting in the parish, when a dissenting preacher was ad-
dressing a large assemblage in the open air, the Vicar took
as his text, "Abide ye here with the ass, while I and the
lad go yonder and worship." He so worded the beginning
of his discourse that his hearers thought he alluded to him-
self as the ass, but he proceeded to show that to " go yonder
and worship" meant to go to the sanctuary appointed by God,
the lonely altar which their fathers had set up on the far
hill-side, and that to " abide with the Ass " meant to stay
away from church and follow false prophets.
When the Son of an old parishioner, a churchman, married
a dissenter, the Vicar was greatly grieved, and still more
so when their child was christened at Chapel. When a
second child was born, however, the grandfather induced
the parents to bring it for baptism to Church. The Vicar
felt that in the circumstances he ought to perform the cere-
mony himself, although, as Mr. Rawlins says, he was really
quite unfit to leave the house. It was almost at the risk of
his life that he did it. When the service was over, the
grandfather of the child touched his forehead and asked re-
spectfully the amount of the fee. " My Fee .-' " exclaimed
the Vicar, in a great voice, drawing himself up. " My fee
is a thousand pounds." The grandfather looked aghast.
" I be feerd, sir," he said, " 'tes moor'n I can pay." " Don't
you know," went on the Vicar, his voice echoing through
"MY FEE IS A THOUSAND POUNDS!" 605
the Church, " that the sacraments of God are invaluable ?
that no amount of money can pay for them ? " He
chuckled hugely over the incident afterwards. " That," he
said to Mr. Rawlins, "will be repeated at every inn and
hearth-side in Cornwall. It will teach them to appreciate
the sacraments of the Church,"
His playful humour never deserted him to the end of his
life. One day, when he went over to Barnstaple with his
wife and her aunt, to consult Dr. Budd, they went into a
confectioner's shop. There was no one there to serve.
The Vicar slipped behind the counter, laid aside his hat,
and tied an apron that was lying- near round his waist.
Some customers came into the shop and he gravely served
them, while the ladies were overcome with laughter
outside. He had a great command of countenance.
At family prayers he would sometimes read out passages
that seemed strangely appropriate to recent domestic
incidents. Mrs. Hawker on these occasions could not
always retain her gravity, and the Vicar would pause and
say, in a tone of reproach, " Pauline ! " Afterwards she would
say, " Robert, I'm sure what you were reading isn't in the
Bible." " My dear," would be the reply, " That is because
you don't understand Greek. I read from the Greek Testa-
ment, translating as I go along." A lady who resided for a
time in Morwenstow writes : — " I remember when Cherry
(short for Charity), the new housemaid, came, the lesson
that evening happened to be the Chapter on Charity in
Corinthians. I wonder if it really was its turn ! " On
Sunday afternoons he always gave his servants note-paper
and a stamp apiece, and told them to write home.
" Mr. Hawker," says a former parishioner, " strongly
appreciated gratitude or kindness. An old uncle of mine
used to bring presents of fruit and flowers to the Vicarage.
The Vicar cried like a child when he buried the old man.
6o6 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
He was very excitable. In the middle of tea once he
jumped up in great alarm and ran to the window, which
looked westward over the sea. The sun was setting in a
blaze of crimson. ' It's the end of the world ! ' cried he, in
great excitement. ' I knew it was coming. I knew it.' He
was perfectly serious. ' Nonsense, Robert,' said Mrs.
Hawker. ' It is only the sunset' He would not believe it
at first, and it was sometime before she could persuade him
to return to the table. This was not long before he died." ^
'Just before sending this book to press, I have received a vivid reminiscence
of Hawker from the Rev. W. H. Thornton, Rector of North Bovey : —
" North Bovey Rectory. 19 December 1904.
" Dear Sir, — You wrrite to me to ask me for any recollections I may retain of
the late Mr. R. S. Hawker of Morwenstow, and therefore I have a right to
suppose, as I think, that you will not be offended if without malice I tell you
the story of the little I know of a very eccentric man. Everybody felt, and
everybody feels, most kindly about him, but he was very eccentric. So far as
I know, I only saw him twice. On the first occasion, in or abont 1859, I was
at the • Falcon ' Hotel at Bude, in company with the Rev. J. A. W. Collins,
now Vicar of Newton St. Cyres. We had, on the previous day, walked by a
devious route from Barnstaple, taking Torrington and Stratton on our way —
some 40 miles as I suppose. We had bathed in the early morning in the sea,
and were having our breakfast at the ' Falcon,' when two gentlemen outside
passed, and repassed, the open window of our room. One of them was
struggling with a cigar which would not draw, and was venting his annoy-
ance in language which was really remarkably strong. He was the Venerable
Archdeacon Phillpotts, come to hold a North Cornwall Visitation Court, and
he was evidently greatly dissatisfied with the quality of the tobacco supplied
at the hotel at that time.
" His companion was the Rev. R. S. Hawker, who had come to attend at the
Visitation. He was very stout, and was clad in a complete suit of blue serge.
His dress everywhere fitted very closely to his body, and his jacket had no
skirts or tails, or such like ordinary appendages, and the bright blue colour
thereof was very remarkable, more especially considering the errand he was
on. [Probably Hawker had taken off his cassock or coat, for the sake of
coolness, and was walking about in his jersey], I enquired of the landlord,
or waiter, of the inn, and I was informed that I was in the presence of two
remarkable, but singular, men. They appeared to be very well acquainted
with each other, and presently Mr. Collins and I marched off for Okehampton
through the rapidly assembling clergymen, who were coming from all
quarters to the Visitation. Some twenty years later I was walking along the
THE ARCHDEACON'S CIGAR 607
cliffs, from Hartland to Bude, with the Rev. Ernest Browne, now, as I think,
residing in Clifton. My habit was never to eat or drink between start and
finish, no matter what the weather might be, nor how long the march. The
day was hot, however, and my companion rather wearied as we neared
Morwenstow Village, and I looked, on his behalf, for a decent inn, and was
disappointed. But I knew Prebendary Kempe of Merton, and I also knew
that he was friendly with Mr. Hawker, and I remembered my meeting with
him at the Visitation on the former occasion, so I told Mr. Browne, who was
much younger than myself, that if he liked, I would call at the Parsonage
and we could interview a very remarkable man, and ask him to show us a
very remarkable Church, built on a very remarkable spot, and I suggested
that it was possible that he might offer my companion some refreshment as
well.
"We met the second Mrs, Hawker in the hall, and saw and heard her
children, then very youug, and we were shown into the drawing room by the
maid. There Mr. Hawker came to us, clad in a blue dressing gown, laced
with golden braid. He had on red slippers adorned by silver spangles, and
he was puffing at an unusually long Churchwarden clay pipe. He seemed
astonished at our call, but I explained our object, a former introduction at the
' Falcon,' mutual acquaintanceship with Preb. Kempe, our desire to see an
interesting Church under first class, first rate guidance, our general thirst (for
information), etc., etc. I told him how far we had walked, and expatiated
on the heat of the sun on the bare cliffs, and I apologised for our untidy
appearance. He nodded, and disappeared, but soon came back, with no
eatables, but with a large old leathern black jack full of excellent but rather
strong beer.
"We drank, and being possessed of remarkably strong heads positively
maintained equilibrium I Then I blundered over St. Morwenna, and he was
upon me in a moment, eagerly rebuking my ignorance I Then he took us
round the Parsonage grounds, and with great pride showed us many figure-
heads, etc., of derelict ships, wrecked just below his house, and he told us of
the drowned sailors whom he had buried. I thought that, if the ships had to
be wrecked, and the men drowned, he was very pleased that the calamities
should occur near Morwenstow I Then he showed us the Church, and gave
us much learned information thereon. He was picturesque, kind, clever,
imaginative, but as I thought, very peculiar! I think he had several cats in
and about the Church, and credited them with much moral responsibility!
Then we parted and went into Bude, and I never saw him afterwards. Now,
Sir, once again, you asked for my recollections, and you have them. Yours
truly, — W. H. Thornton.
CHAPTER XXVI
1874
Visit to London — Hawker at the Opening of Parliament —
At the Zoo — At the Pro-Cathedral — At Westminster
Abbey — Letters to Dr. Lee — Preaches at All Saints,
Lambeth — Preaches at St. Matthias, Brompton — Letter
FROM Longfellow — The Public Worship Regulation Bill
— " A very Inferior Lot ! "
In February 1874 the Vicar decided to go to London for
medical advice both for himself and Mrs. Hawker. " On
Monday," he writes, " We go hence on our shuddering
journey to London. . . No mind can conceive no tongue
can tell the terror with which I contemplate this journey, but
they say that Pauline's life depends on it and I cannot take
the responsibility of refusing to go. . . Rawlins undertakes
our house and Parish. Chope will serve Wellcombe. John
Olde will manage the Farm. So my Staff is good and
reliable."
" The Sunday before he left," says Mr. Rawlins, " he
preached a farewell sermon, taking for his text, * There was a
man sent from God, and his name was John.' ' My Brethren,'
he said solemnly, ' When the people of the great metropolis
ask me in whose charge I have left my little flock in the
wilderness, what answer shall I render ? ' Then turning
round and stretching out his hand towards me in the
chancel, 'Shall I not say, "There was a man sent from
608
HOUSE OF COMMONS TWANG 609
God, and his name was John ? " My Brethren, there
he is.'"
The Vicar wrote a good many letters from London
describing his experiences.
To W. Rowe, Esq.
" 16, Harley Road, South Hampstead. Feby. 27, 1874.
..." Dr. Goodfellow examined me like an Anatomist
yesterday and pronounced me devoid of any dangerous
symptom and ' to have good work in me still.' "
To J. G. Godwin^ Esq.
" 16, Harley Road, South Hampstead. March 12, 1874.
" I saw the opening of Parliament and the choice of the
Speaker, heard the Mover and the Seconder speak the
meagre common Speeches with the Counter-jumper's gestures
and ' House of Commons ' twang — orators ! ! ! No. I went
to S. Mary Magdalen, Paddington, on Sunday, where I am
asked to preach for an Offertory for Mww. Church. I am
also offered access to the pulpits of Mr. Haines, Brompton,
and others, but I shall not be able to summon up cheek to
face a London Audience. So I must forfeit the money.
We went to Evensong at Westminster Abbey the day we saw
you but it was very disappointing — ' fastidious ' you will say
— yes perhaps I am — country people often are."
While Mr. and Mrs. Hawker were in Harley Road, the
three children stayed with Mr. Henry Stevens at Vermont
House close by. One of them made a penwiper for Mr.
Stevens out of a little American flag, and Hawker wrote
these lines to be presented with it : —
" I have nothing to give you, dear Grandpa, alack !
But stars for your eyes and stripes for your back I "
2 Q
6io LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
To William Maskell, Esq.
" i6 Harley Road, South Hampstead. March 19, 1874.
"My Dear Maskell,
" I went down myself to the Reform Club and
found you had been gone that morning for Dorset. An
officer in a splendid uniform whose throne was in a Chrystal
Palace near the door was very civil to me. Conceive my
assisting, as the French say, at the opening of Parliament !
I saw the Speaker chosen and heard the speeches of the
mover and seconder and of Mr. Gladstone. I have also
taken the children to the Zoo and their remarks were very
original. Nothing could induce Juliot to put a piece of
biscuit 'up the elephant's nose.' I went to the Pro-Cathe-
dral and heard a lovely Sermon from the Archbishop. I
have also been at St. Mary Magdalen, Paddington, Trinity
Church and the Abbey, and the chief feature that struck me
in all was the amazing content and gratefulness of the
English People, To see how they receive what they
receive is very wonderful. Such Services and Sermons and
no complaint. Are you coming up } I feel very forlorn.
So many thousand faces and not one that I know."
"Early in March of 1874," writes Dr. Lee in his
' Memorials,' " Mr. Hawker did me the honour to apply to
me for specific information regarding certain perplexing
details bearing upon the validity of Church of England
ordinations. The fact that direct and undoubted evidence
has not, as yet, been discovered of William Barlow's conse-
cration ; coupled with the doubt, which will possibly always
exist in some minds, as to Barlow's intention in consecrating
Matthew Parker, troubled him sorely."
" He wrote to me about that period thus : — ' Another
question which I cannot get answered is this : Why, when
our dear old Church possessed forms for Ordination and
HAWKER PREACHES AT LAMBETH 6ii
Consecration, which were universally regarded as vaHd, (and
this without an exception) should other forms have been
substituted for them, which have been questioned ever since
the dark day of change ? Did not the restoration and im-
provements of 1662 come a century too late ?' "
The expression " our dear old Church " shows that, what-
ever his doctrinal doubts and difficulties may have been, he
still retained a strong affection for " the house of the Mother
that bare him."
To J. G. Godwin, Esq.
" 16 Harley Road, South Hampstead. March 28, 1874.
" My Dear Sir,
"Your announcement that you are going out of
Town after Easter terminates my efforts for any Sermon for
my Church. Because I sincerely meant what I said when
I told you that unless you took me to the Church and sus-
tained me by your presence there I could not assume the
Courage necessary to preach. Mrs. Hawker is still too
unwell to accompany me and I am too weak to go among
Strangers alone. Perhaps it is meant to check my too pro-
bable failure. At all events it is consonant with my usual
ill-fortune in all attempts outside my own Parish. . . , Dr.
F. G. Lee has written me very kindly and presented me
with a copy of his excellent work on Anglican Orders."
"On the evening of Easter Day, 1874," writes Dr. Lee,
" Mr. Hawker was brought down to my Parish Church, All
Saints', Lambeth, by our mutual friend Mr. J. G. Godwin.
I had not seen the venerable Vicar of Morwenstow for more
than twenty-five years, since I, as a youth, was presented to
him about the year 1847 o^ 1848, at Oxford ; and, at first
sight, he appeared so altered that I should have scarcely re-
cognised him ; but, by degrees, his old form and face
6i2 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
returned again, and I had the pleasure of seeing before me,
and affectionately greeting, a Poet- Priest, who, through evil
report and good report — ever standing up for principle —
had done so great a work in his Cornish parish ; whose
memory is deservedly respected wherever that work is
known ; and for whom, both as Priest and Poet, benevolent,
refined, and courteous, I myself entertain so true and deep
a regard.
" His Sermon I shall never forget. He spoke most
eloquently of the certainty of the Resurrection, of the Faith
and the Hope and the Joy of the Mother of God, and of the
blessed end of our own enduring warfare here. His voice,
melodious and of a wide compass, was as clear as a bell ;
his manner simple, dignified, and loving : his oratory per-
fect. The congregation listened with breathless attention,
and were deeply struck by his remarkable powers."
To Dr. F. G. Lee.
"April lo, 1874.
" I hope my publisher has sent you a copy of my book,
' Footprints of Former Men in Far Cornwall,' as I ordered
him. You must hold it in menioriam. You have given
me gold for lead in your noble volume on 'The Validity
of our Ordinations,' one that ought to have been the
chief text-book of the Church of England in this Age of
Doubt.
" I shall take with me to the grave the service in your
church on the evening of Easter Day. I never felt more
impressed than by the gleam of Paradise as we turned in from
the dull lanes and streets of Lambeth, into your lighted Hall
of God. It must be to you like an inspiration, to rule and
reign in such a sanctuary. May God the Trinity give you a
throne in your chancel for long and coming years ! " . . .
"THE THANES FLY FROM ME" 613
To the same.
"April xvj., 1874.
. . . "I am desirous to strike a blow for Restoration of
my Church, but I know not where to seek for Pulpits. . . .
Will you favour me with one line of suggestion ? "
To the same.
"April 26, 1874.
"Thanks, cordial thanks, for your letter to the Post [on
Archbishop Tait's Bill]. What a forcible and incisive letter
it is ! You would have made a fortune at the bar. The ears
of those with whom it deals ought to tingle as they read it.
God be with you in the conflict, and grant us a triumph ! I
myself am sad and doubting, and very low ; for I believe we
are losing the battle."
To J G. Godwin, Esq.
" 16 Harley Road, South Hampstead. April 28, 1874.
" My Dear Sir,
" Everything has gone wrong and I attribute a
great deal to your absence from London. No one to advise
me, none to help. Dr. F. G. Lee has behaved, however,
most kindly. He sent me Notes of Introduction to White,
St. Barnabas, Pimlico, and to Stuart, Munster Square. The
former was denied to me when I called, although confessed-
ly at home, and in reply to a Note from me inclosing one
from Lee he sent me a flat refusal. He wanted all his
Offertories for himself LiddellofSt. Paul's, Knightsbridge,
refused for the same reason. Stuart, whom I saw when I
called, snubbed me. Compton of All Saints, Margaret
Street, has not replied to a Note from me inclosing one of
request from T. ' Doctor, The Thanes fly from me.' I have
6i4 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
preached for Morwenstow once only and that at Evensong.
This was a great success. ' Splendid — lovely — most eloquent
— original ' — these were the epithets among some of the
1500 people present. The average Offertory at Evensong
in that church for 1872-3 had been under jC^. They gave
me ^26-18/- and Westall the Curate wrote me a few days
after to say that he could not express how I had ' delighted
and edified his people and they had talked of nothing else
since but the Sermon : ' he thanked me also for what I had
taught him. This Sermon, which proves that I could have
preached if I had been allowed, I shall write down from
memory for Pauline and the Children. I have sent a copy
of the Ballads to Longfellow and asked if he can get the
Book printed in America since England will not have it. I
do wish I could get the copies out of Parker's hands so as to
print a new Edition with added Poems left out in the last.
You will be sorry to hear that we go down to-morrow week
the 5 th May with my poor dear Wife hardly a shade better.
I am nearly frenzied with the failure of this bitter and costly
effort. My resources too are exhausted and my Normal
State of Misery from this cause is deeply increased. With-
out some succour the results must at no distant time be fatal.
Since I wrote the above words I have received a letter from
the Churchwarden of St. Matthias to say that after deducting
the average amount of the four previous Evening offertories
I am to be allowed the Balance ! What bitter meanness !
So that if I had not happened to get an excess and the
Offertory had been an average one I should have had
nothing ! Well, my Journey has revealed to me the utter
narrowness and selfishness of the Ritualist Clergy — and the
Bigoted restriction to Self of all their efforts. By the
Archbishop's Act my Ruin will be accelerated and you will
have to grieve, as you will, over the exile and destruction of
my house and home. No one could have a daily Service at
LETTER FROM LONGFELLOW 615
Wellcombe and Morwenstow. Good Night. God bless
you. Yrs. faithfully,
" R. S. Hawker."
Longfellow's reply to Hawker's letter was as follows : —
"Cambridge. May il, 1874.
" My Dear Sir,
" I should have thanked you sooner for your
kindness in sending me your ' Cornish Ballads,' but wished
first to ascertain whether there were any chance of getting
them republished here.
" I have made two or three attempts, and I am very sorry
to say without success. The exceedingly depressed state
of the book-trade makes publishers unwilling to undertake
anything new.
" The merits of your book are very marked, and I have
read it with great interest and pleasure. Many of the
Legends are strange and striking ; and you have treated them
all very artistically and successfully. This only makes me
regret the more the impossibility of having them republished
on this side of the water.
"Accept, I beg you, my best thanks for the volume, and
my regrets at not being able to carry out your wishes.
" I am, my Dear Sir,
" Yours truly,
" Henry W. Longfellow."
Longfellow afterwards included many of Hawker's ballads
in his collection of ' Poems of Places.'
To Dr. F. G. Lee.
"April 28, 1874.
" Thank you very earnestly, my dear Dr. Lee, for your
kind efforts to obtain pulpits for me. But I regret to say
6i6 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
that I have not been successful. . . . Well, we shall soon, I
infer, have neither churches nor ritual. Has Archibald Tait
ever been baptized .-' If he has, the exorcisms were omitted,
if one may judge from the demonism of his measure [the
Public Worship Regulation Bill]. I wish he and his could
be induced to renounce the Devil in old age. One of your
flock, whose name I do not know, followed me to Brompton
because of my sermon at Lambeth. Was not this a compli-
ment .<• My Repulsion elsewhere makes me more grateful
to you."
Dr. Lee gives the following extracts from other letters
which he received from Hawker at this time : —
"April 1874.
" I accept the omens. It is not from London that God
intends the resources of my restoration should be drawn.
Nor are the doomed and selfish clergy of this earthly city
to be my trusted allies in the hurnble warfare which I wage
for the gray old shrine on the Tamar side,
" The open disobedience of the Ritualistic party is to
myself a problem and a puzzle. I obey (in the question of
relinquishing the use of the sacerdotal vestments) ; bowing
my head before circumstances, and throwing the whole re-
sponsibility on my Father in God. What else can a
Christian priest do .-' But I am getting paralysed and
stricken down with anxiety as to the future."
After his return to Morwenstow, Hawker, meeting a
friend, gave a long account of his experiences in the
metropolis. At the end he said, with great emphasis, and
slowly weighing his words, " On — the — whole, a — very —
inferior — lot, the London Clergy."
CHAPTER XXVII
1874-5
Rev. J. F. Chanter's Reminiscences — Matthew Arnold's
Brother at Morwenstow — Ecclesiastical Questions —
Tait's Baptism — Epigrams — Another Wreck — ' A Can-
ticle FOR Christmas ' — Letters from Manning and
Newman — ' Psalmus Cantici ' — The New Curate — " My
Mind ! It is Gone."
Some reminiscences of the Vicar during his last summer at
Morwenstow have been kindly furnished by the Rev. J. F.
Chanter, now Rector of Parracombe in Devon : —
"In the summer of 1874," he writes, "My Father took
the old Manor House of Tonacombe. One of the first
callers was the Rev. R. S. Hawker. I was very struck at
the time with his personal appearance. He was dressed in
a brown Cassock, with a broad-brimmed, brown felt hat.
His hair was white and long — clean-shaved face — with
bright rosy cheeks.
" Our first conversation at his house was on the subject of
Tonacombe. There was an external stone stair leading
from the little courtyard to a bedroom : this room he told
me was called Master Zachary's chamber which was haunted
by the spirit of Master Zachary.
" Afterwards our talk nearly always glided into the subject
of the unseen world, on which he had always much to say
— but if there were others present and a laugh arose he
617
6i8 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
would stop at once, saying ' I do not care to discuss such
subjects in the presence of unbeHevers.' It seemed to me
that Mr. Hawker Hved in a world of spirits and they were his
constant companions and friends — more than those still living
on the earth, I remember once telling him I was going
one afternoon to Marsland ; on which he said, ' You must
go and look at the old house there — there is a very curious
old lady there you may see — come into my study and I will
shew you her picture — she died, at least her body did, some
sixty years ago. I frequently see her and talk with her.'
" I saw the picture, but was not able to see or speak to the
old lady — a sceptical age laughs at those things, but I pre-
fer to believe that to the pure in heart a sight into the spirit-
world is given which is hidden from more mundane mortals.
Sir Beville Grenville seemed to be also a great friend of his
— and besides these spirits of mortals — there were other
spiritual beings, from the divine and higher orders of angelic
beings ever in the presence of God to the lower and lapsed
ones with their curious actions and gambols in which there
was some imitation of the higher beings, with whom in his
mind he certainly mingled and conversed. In these points
Mr. Hawker has always seemed to me the original of the
dear old Vicar of Ashley — in ' John Inglesant ' — who taught
him the mysterious Platonic philosophy seen thro' the re-
flected rays of Christianity, and the Rosicrucian theories of
spiritual existences, and belief in souls separate and their
converse with each other.
" Most of us, and perhaps more than we think, are given at
times to metaphysical speculation and day dreams, and Mr.
Hawker was a master who led his listener's thoughts into
that mysterious channel.
" Mr. Hawker's sermons on Sundays made a deep impres-
sion on us, they were so out of the common, and under them
all lay that feeling and belief in spiritual beings and
THE REV. E. P. ARNOLD 619
existences to which I referred. I remember, at Morwenstow,
I stood as sponsor for a child at baptism, and afterwards Mr.
Hawker preached on the baptism — his subject was guardian
angels — he described most vividly a scene in heaven as a
guardian angel was chosen to care for the newly baptized
infant — the descent of the angel — his hovering round the
font at the baptism — it was all so vividly described that you
felt it was something the Vicar had seen himself, and one
involuntarily glanced round to look for the presence of the
angelic being. Mr. Hawker's manner of delivery of his
sermons was very impressive — he stood at the entrance of
the chancel screen with one arm at times around it, in sur-
plice— red stole — long white hair, and rather red face — slow
and solemn in his manner, and emphasizing his points with
movement of one arm."
Another visitor to Morwenstow in this summer was the
Rev. E. P. Arnold,^ a younger brother of Matthew Arnold,
and, like him, an Inspector of Schools. In the report book
of the Parish School is an entry by him dated 9 July 1874 : —
" I cannot help congratulating the Vicar, of whose uphill
labours to support a school in this remote district I have
been witness for so many years, that he has at last succeeded
in getting this substantial and well-filled School erected, and
that it is now at work under a Certificated Master, with
every prospect of success."
It is curious, seeing that Mr. Arnold had visited Mor-
wenstow for so many years, that there is no allusion to his
brother Matthew in Hawker's letters, especially as Matthew
Arnold's poems were among the Vicar's few and treasured
volumes.
Hawker continued to take a strong interest in the
theological controversies of the day. On July xix., 1874,
he writes to Mr. Godwin : —
■ See page 284.
620 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
" Our Postal affairs under the Ministry of the Circum-
cision are very worrying and evil. I want a Service Book
of the Greek Church on loan in Latin. I want to expose
the Doctrines and Ritual of a Church more idolatrous in a
Protestant Sense than Rome."
Again, on Sept. 3, 1874: —
" I want to write to the Church Herald if I can do so
with safety, i.e. if my name can be solemnly preserved in
secrecy. I seek a resolution of doubt as to Tait's Baptism.
I want again to put a question to the Wesleyan Authorities.
What channel should I seek } "
On 21 Sept. 1874 he writes. "The Reason why success
does not attend all these spasmodic efforts to bolster up the
Anglican Body is that they are all hollow and selfish and
insincere. A Mass of Men see and hear of a noble gift, a
generous succour, and they cry out, ' What a good Man !
What a fine-hearted Fellow ! ' An Angel standing by and
looking into the Man's Mind and discerning his motives
mocks his efforts and glides away with God's benediction
unopened in his hand. The Two Worlds are nearer than
we think, and the transactions between them are daily and
graphic. A Bishop in his Place in Parliament utters a
defiant and rancorous speech Godward. Soon after his
Horse stumbles and the Angel of his Baptism holds aloof
and unsuccoured he dies.'' Another Bishop apes the
Apostle and the Martyr among the barbarous people of the
Southern Seas. In peril an arrow or a club which the
least of God's angels could have averted by a touch, yet
did not, slew him. Even I wondered until his Episcopal
Life was written and printed. Then saw I the cause of
these things. The Doctrines uttered by this Man to the
listening Heathen were fallacious and untrue. He was
' Samuel Wilberforce, then Bishop of Winchester, died of a fall from his
horse in 1873.
SPIRITS AND ANGELS 621
Arian, Wesleyan, heretical, and the Messages he invented
were not sent by God. So among the Savages he was left
alone. I firmly believe that the daily affairs of us all are
discussed among Spirits and Angels, and are helped or
hindered by them as usually as one earthly friend helps
another. The angels hear what we say, read what we
write : one is looking over my shoulder now : and they are
empowered to requite good and evil, not only, said
Augustine, 'according to God's general command but by
the exercise of their own rational and reasonable power.'
If you have seen my letter to the Plymouth Paper ^ you
will understand the office they fulfil in the Economy of the
Universe. A Traveller in Yorkshire in 1852 encountered
on a Moor a Person who seemed to him to be a Pedlar
carrying a pack. They sate down upon a Rock and
conversed. Said the Stranger ' In fifty years from this
time the great mass of the English people will be divided
into Two armies and their names will be Catholic and
Infidel.' The Traveller knew not who the Stranger might
be nor did he touch him so as to ascertain that he was
really a man, and soon after, how he could hardly tell, he
had glided away. I read this Book of Travels and I have
often thought of it since. I hope you will always be a
faithful friend to my dear ones when I am not. There are
materials in MSS. in this house that if they could be arranged
and printed would be of enormous money value. O my
lost life — that failure throughout."
To J. G. Godwin, Esq.
"Octr. 7, 1874.
. . . "Yesterday the Bishop of Llandaff with his Wife
and Daughter dined here. Zero in Church Matters.
' Western Morning Nru's of 9 Sept, 1 874,
622 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
Maskell has asked me to allow him to print my Epigrams
(did you ever see them ?) for private distribution, and I have
consented. . . . The Epigrams are very trivial and not
worth anything in money, and it was the consciousness of
this which made me adopt Maskell's proposal. I too want
another copy of ' Rural Synods,' because I gave your copy,
for which I very much thank you, to the Bishop of Exeter.
I want to disarm my Accusers, especially one deadly
adversary. . . . He it was who introduced every Roman
feature into my Chancel — Credence — Dossel — Super
Altar and large Cross, yet I am forsooth too Roman to
be allowed to remain Vicar of Morwenstow ! ! "
It is very difficult to define from Hawker's letters his
exact attitude at this time towards the Church of Rome,
but the allusions thereto are increasingly frequent. He
does not seem to have lost his belief in Anglican Orders.
"The Church Herald,'' he writes, "Shelves the strongest
point of attack in all the Battle — Tait's unbaptized con-
dition. His orders. Confirmations, his Votes in Parliament
are all invalid." This implies that the orders conferred by
Tait would have been valid if he had been properly baptized.
In writing to a neighbouring clergyman on 17 Nov. 1874,
for help in obtaining a curate. Hawker says : —
" Speak of me as I am ; nothing extenuate ; you can
acknowledge that this is not the scene for strut or grimace
or falsetto but that any honest or sincere man would find
in Mww. a sphere of great usefulness and a ladder-foot for
enterprise Heavenward."
It is impossible to suppose that if the Vicar were con-
scious that he was in a false position as holding an Anglican
benefice he would have spoken thus of sincerity and
honesty. Yet on the very next day we find him writing to
]\Ir. Godwin the letter that follows. He did not understand
consistency. He was like the Roman Catholic Scientist of
DIZZY AND GLADSTONE 623
whom it was said that when he entered his oratory he shut
the door of his laboratory, and vice versa.
To J. G. Godwin, Esq.
"(18 Nov. 1874.)
" My Dear Sir,
"You ask me what I think of Dizzy and Glad-
stone ? I inclose an opinion.
"An English boy was born : a Jew : so then
On the eighth day they circumcised him Ben !
Another child had birth : baptized : but still
In public phrase surnamed The People's Will !
Both lived impenitent, and so they died.
And between both the Church was crucified !
Which bore the Brand ? I pray thee tell me true,
The perjured Christian or the recreant Jew ? "
..." My health is not what you would wish. Still up
to last Sunday I fulfilled Three duties and preached three
Sermons without note or forethought just as I did to your
knowledge at Lambeth. Amid all the Deluge I wonder
you don't seek the obvious Ark — You so independent and
so quite unfettered. To the helpless there is hardly an
avenue left. The Chief of the Anglican Body a Pagan un-
baptised, the most of the Rulers reckless infidels or idiots.
You would grieve to see me. All my pluck is gone. I
am utterly despondent.
"R. S. H."
To Dr. F. G. Lee.
"Nov. 19, 1874.
" I think that the dogged reticence of Dr. Tait as to his
baptism is the most offensive fact in modern controversy.
Could not an appeal to him for decision of doubt be made
for signature by the persons directly involved .-' Mrs. Hawker
624 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
was ostensibly confirmed by him at St. Pancras', when he was
Bishop of London ; and if she attached any value to his
office would be very much dismayed by the discovery that
he had laid on her the empty hands of a Pagan officer, ' as
one that beateth the air.' There is something almost
demoniac in the way in which some mock at the grace of the
Paraclete in all their functions. But the total history of our
times is a record of the Battle of the demons with the
Battalions of the Living God. I hope to have a line from
you soon. In these days it is something to receive a
Sacramental Letter from a true man. God speed you in all
your ways."
To J. G. Godwin, Esq.
" Deer, 2, 1874.
" My Dear Sir,
" You are indeed a Citizen of the World — London
— The Isle of Bute — Cardiff, &c., &c. Still I do not envy you.
My horizon is bounded but I could be content if I could but
have peace and hope therein. Still let me reckon up my
comforts. Mrs. Hawker's health is restored my children
happy and well and I as well as I can ever hope now to be,
for my bodily ailments are such as will continue as long as
I breathe. They are perilous and chronic. I place myself
in the arms of God's mercy and I can only hope that my good
may be set over against my evil and that my Sins may be
blotted for my Redeemer's sake, I trust among your journies
you have not forgotten one and that is hither. Why not
spend Xmas day with us and as much added time as you can
spare } My efforts to obtain a Curate are fruitless. Dr. Lee
has tried in vain. Advertisements fail to attract. This is no
sphere for strut and grimace and self-conceit. A sincere
honest heart satisfied to win Souls might make this place a
ladder-foot of Heaven but such souls are rare in England now.
'A CANTICLE FOR CHRISTMAS' 625
But to reply to your letter. What kind of thing is The
World Paper ? Extracts from it seem good. But you ought
to know best. Did I send you my Epigrams, one on Tait ^ ?
I won't print any ; it might rouse up enmity and revenge.
A mournful wreck under Wellcombe CHffs on Sunday
Morning — 3 or 4 drowned but none washed ashore yet.
We expect the bodies every hour. Bude Vessel ( the Nancy),
Captain leaves a Widow and 2 or 3 children."
Tj the same.
" Deer. 26, 1874.
" My Dear Sir,
" The copies of my Canticle arrived safely and I
thank you . . . My Deacon comes on the 31st. married (40)
with no children. I do not confide much — the omens are
adverse — handwriting, style of letters, manner &c. . , Our
Xmas Dinner yesterday ; 20 dined here and 30 had a lb of Beef
and a lb of pudding each to-day. Our Church is beautifully
decorated. Miss Savage has worked hard and Mrs. Hawker.
. . . How is my Canticle liked by impartial men } . . Do
write. Our kind regards & every kindly wish & sympathy of
this Blessed Season."
It is pleasant to think that the old Vicar's last Christmas
was thus spent, in kindly remembrance of the poor ; and that
he could so far detach his mind from gloomy thoughts as to
feel once more the spiritual glow of poetry. And it was
fitting that the poet, who on a Christmas nearly forty years
before had sung so tenderly of Modryb Marya,' should turn
again at the last to that ' sweet story of old ' which was the
corner-stone of his faith.
See paj^e
2 R
626 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
"A Canticle for Christmas, 1874.
" Lo ! a pure Maiden, meek and mild.
Yearns to embrace an awful Child !
Those limbs, her tenderest touch might win :
Yet thrill they with the God within !
" She gazes ! and what doth she see ?
A gleaming Infant on her knee !
She pauses : can she dare to press
That Glory with a fond caress ?
" Yet 'tis her flesh : that Form so fair !
Her very blood is bounding there !
The mother's heart the victory won :
It is her God ! it is her Son !
" Hers the proud gladness mothers know,
Without a thrill, without a throe ;
And Mary — Mary undefiled,
Claims for her breast that awful Child ! "
He sent his ' Canticle for Christmas ' to Cardinals
Manning and Newman, who repHed in the following letters : —
" Archbishop's House,
"Westminster, S.W. Jan. 2, 1875.
" My Dear Sir,
" I thank you much for your Christmas Carol. It
is beautiful, and full of faith, which in these days is
becoming scant. The light of the Incarnation is very dim in
multitudes all over the Christian world.
" ]\Iay God bless and prosper you in this New Year.
" Believe me always,
"Yours faithfully in J. C.
" t Henry E. " Archbp of West."
LETTERS: NEWMAN AND MANNING 627
From Cardinal Newman to Rev. R. S. Hawker.
"The Oratory. Feb. 20, 1875.
" My Dear Mr. Hawker,
" I was away from home when your kind letter came.
I thank you most heartily for it and for the beautiful poem
which it inclosed. Of course there is just one thought which
rises in a Catholic's mind, which he finds it difficult to answer ;
and the more he discerns the grace and skill of the composi-
tion the more the question intrudes itself upon him.
" Do not think me ungrateful to you in thus speaking —
I am constrained to do so, and the more pleasure I take in
what you so kindly say of me, the more I am bound to
recollect that in what I say to you I have to please Another,
not myself.
" With every good thought & prayer, I am,
" Most truly yours,
"John H. Newman."
On 20 Jan. 1875 the Vicar writes to Mr. Godwin : —
" You have paid all your visits save one and that one where
you would certainly be as welcome as at any house wherein
you have sojourned— this Vicarage. You were due here this
month and I hope nothing will induce you to postpone it
much longer. It will not long be in my power to receive
you. For my state of disease admonishes me to prepare for
the end. I have consulted Dr. Goodfellow again and his
reply is very ominous."
To the same,
"Feby. 5, 1875.
" Mv Dear Sir,
" If you knew how anxiously we watch every Post
for tidings from you, you would not omit to write if it were but
628 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
one unavailing line. I do entreat you to say when we are to
send to meet you. I am so crushed that only to see you and
hear your voice would be a solace to me and mine. Griefs
are crowding in upon me on every side great and small and
my whole frame of Body and mind gives way. And now
that I am writing I remember you cannot have this until
Monday. I have so much to say to you when we meet. Do
strain every Point and come. I implore you not to fail
me."
To J. G. Godwin^ Esq. (after his visit).
"March 4, 1875.
..." I was so glad to see you. Would to God I could
look to see your face again. Never was Man so harassed
with diversity of dooms as I am. What shall I do .-' Those
faces — those blessed faces downstairs — How can I brook to see
hem .'' I pray you write and comfort me if you can. What
shall I do } "
It was characteristic of Hawker and his utter incapacity
for economy that while bewailing his financial straits to Mr.
Godwin he commissions him to make purchases in London,
generally of an expensive kind. Thus he writes, on 16
March 1875 : —
" The watch arrived in safety — going — with London Time.
Thanks sincere. I must ask you for a pair of Red or Red-
like Gloves, Red if to be had, if not as nearly red as possible.
I used to be able to get Red Gauntlets but now Gloves would
do. ... I prefer the Gold Glasses — they sit so firmly — and
suit my tastes — embossed Gold I should not like. . . . Can
I have a very good single-blade Pen-knife with horn or
any other common handle } I would give anything for
one good Razor honed or Sharpened for immediate
'PSALMUS CANTICr 629
use. ... I enclose cheque and will others when outlay-
requires it.
" ' Ho ! for the Sangreal ! once again I \ ,
The dream of Echo with a Shout of Song.'
Can you send me a Paper (not the Weekly Register') with a
full account of the Consistory wherein Manning received his
Hat } The ceremony at length."
The poem entitled ' Psalmus Cantici ' ^ was written to
commemorate Manning's elevation to the Cardinalate. It
is the last that Hawker wrote. Whether he ever sent it to
the Cardinal does not appear, for it is not mentioned in
the following letter : —
From Cardinal Manning to Rev. R. S. Hawker.
" Archbishop's House,
Westminster, S.W. May 30, 1875.
" Rev. & Dear Sir,
" Do not think my slowness to write has arisen from
insensibility to your kindness in sending me the greeting of
your letter. I have been overdone by work and by writing
letters : yours was laid in order for its turn : & I now thank
you very sincerely.
" I pray every day in the Holy Mass that the England of
S. Edward both in popular liberty and in Catholic unity may
return once more.
" I wish my Countrymen knew how I love England and
Englishmen. If I ever seem to speak sharply it is only
against the errors which mislead so many, & the miseries
whicli make havoc of our beautiful land.
' Included in 'Cornish Ballads' (new edition).
630 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
" What do the men of to-day know of the Sins of the
1 6th. Century ? They did not commit them & they do not
make them their own.
" May every good gift be with you.
"BeHeve me, always,
" Faithfully yours in J. C,
"Henry E., C,
"Archpb. of Westmr."
On 22 April 1875 Hawker writes to Mr. Godwin —
"You will be glad to hear that I have secured a Curate,
one of the most eligible men in Cornwall, Mr. Comber, a
descendant of Dean Comber, whose work on the Prayer Book
you will recall. A married Man with Six Children — earn-
est and zealous and well informed, without any false taste or
pretension."
Again, on May 19th. "I am responsible to Comber
for ^100 a year and House Rent and Taxes for
Dean Lodge ^^"25 more, in all ^125 a year. From what
diggings this Sum is to be exhum.ed does not yet appear.
I am charged to avoid emotion as perilous. Yet every day
brings a new worry. Can you buy for me a cheap Photo-
graph of the Sorcerers Moody and Sankey } The Photo-
graph of the Cardinal is too expensive. Haste and bad
Stationery."
A week later he writes — "You would grieve to know how
feeble I am — weaker every day. Mrs. Hawker talks of
taking me away as soon as Comber comes but I
fear I shall not be able to move from hence again. A
Confirmation between the 4th and 25 th of July. Two
club Sermons at hand but they will occur before Abrahall
goes away and he must preach them. School Inspector
from London on the 2nd June. Accounts made out.
"MY MIND! IT IS GONE!" 631
Balance due to me ;^20 odd. Last year it was ^30-15-0.
To alleviate this Tarratt sent me £10, Mrs. T. Senior ^^"5,
Lord Clinton £10, spontaneously. But every year will
shew the same defect, and I must make up my mind. But
how wild all this is — my mind ! It is gone."
CHAPTER XXVIII
I«75
The Last Journey.
"Fret not. Our Inn, the Church, hath rooms diverse:
He passed from one to another here." — F. G. Lee.
As soon as his Curate was installed in the Parish, the Vicar
went away on a visit to his brother Claud, at Boscastle. A
writer in the Western Morning News of that date says, " on
the authority of one very dear to him," that " Mr. Hawker
had felt for some weeks that his end was approaching, and
so strangely impressed was he with this idea, that on the
Sunday previous to his departure he preached a farewell
sermon to his parishioners at Morwenstow, who were so
moved by it that after the service they crowded round him
in tears." The Rev. J. F. Chanter writes in his remini-
scences already quoted, " When I revisited the scene it was
just after his death. The Churchwarden told me that just
before Mr. Hawker went to Plymouth, where he died, he
sent for him and said, ' I am sure I shall never come back
alive, and so I have sent for you that I may tell you where
I wish my body to be laid.' "
At Boscastle a gleam of his old humour is recalled by a
trivial incident. His brother had a servant named Good,
and the Vicar instructed his children always to say, " Good,
will you be good enough," when they required his services.
632
BOSCASTLE AND PLYMOUTH 633
The following letter is the last addressed to Mr. Godwin.
The writing is painfully small and cramped, an utter
contrast to the large firm hand of his vigorous days. His
handwriting was ever an index of his frame of mind. This
letter is a sad symbol of ruin and decay : —
" 9, Lockyer Street,
"Plymouth. June 11,1875.
" My Dear Sir,
" My life has been so varied of late that I have
hardly been able to command time place or pen to write
anyone. This is my first effort at a letter. Three weeks
ago we resolved to make one attempt to break away sud-
denly from work and worry, and having secured Mr. Comber
of Truro as Curate we turned our backs on the Visit of the
Bishop on the 12th instant, and on his approaching Con-
firmation on the 23rd at.Kilkhampton, and resolved to go off
to Boscastle to seek rest and quiet with my Brother there.
On our arrival we found that the doom pursued us — the
fiend. Poor Claud my Brother had been attacked two days
before with a dangerous malady, Fistula of the Spine. We
had gone as we always do en masse. — Miss Savage and the
3 children with us. So our visit was sheer dismay. But
they were very kind. Mary, Claud's Wife, insisted on our
stay. We tried it. But it was a fearful Scene — Claud in
Pied — I helpless — the children of course in trouble. Still
we stayed on for some days. Indeed we had no home. Mr.
and Mrs. Comber with six children were in our Vicarage
getting ready Dean Lodge for their own abode ; and we
])Icdg(-d as it were to give u[) our own liouse to them till theirs
was ready for them. So after long thought we resolved to
come on here where I was born and on the Monday after we
reached Boscastle, June 21, we came on here not having
634 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
lodgings or temporary home. However my poor dear Wife
did accomplish our purpose and we had shelter for the Night
— the lodgings where we now are. But all is I fear in vain. My
heart is still under disease — the symptoms do not improve.
My Wife has received strength from God to nurse me and to
take care of the children, and with failure of every means of
life among strangers here we are still. My doom is more
than I can bear, nor do I think this state can continue long.
We have a skilful Doctor [Dr. Square]. His only consolation
is that we may ameliorate what we cannot cure. I pray you
write — you see that I can barely hold the pen. I cannot
say more, if you can read this. Our best regards.
"Yrs. faithfully,
" R. S. Hawker."
On June 30th he wrote to a parishioner, " The change
does not produce much benefit, and we shall get home
again as soon as possible."
The following letter, addressed to his Curate, is the last
he ever wrote : —
"9, Lockyer Street. July 26, 1875.
" Dear Mr. Comber,
" Thank you kindly for all your successful work.
The Bishop's demeanour I value most of all. I especially
wish you to be without fail at the Wellcombe visitation. As
I told you I have reasons for this desire. Present my
letters to all — dine there and carry the outlay to me — My
small payments Ward will defray — Let him present to the
Archdeacon the Offertory Book and relate the circumstances
— the truth that one year's Offertory has equalled 3 yrs
Church Rates and will enable us to roof the Church nearly.
If I get home, which I doubt, don't expect to see anything
but a carcase. I am weak to prostration. We shall come
/■. ■;, ., /•,■:•■./■: //,,-, .;■. . /■,
rHK VKAK Hi MOKW T.Ns I'. )\V
THE LAST LETTER 635
home, if we do, without help from Morwenstow, hiring as
we come.
" With kind regards,
"Yours faithfully,
" R. S. Hawker."
Thus, like the shipwrecked Captain of the Caledonia, " his
last thoughts were full of duty to his owners and his ship,
and his latest efforts for rescue and defence."
There is no doubt that, in these few weeks at Plymouth,
the Vicar's overwrought brain began to give way. His
nephew, who up to the last fortnight drove out with him
every day, says that after that he was not right in his mind.
He would look at his relatives w^ho visited him, without
recognition, then suddenly, as the remembrance returned,
would call them by name in surprise.
It was during this time that Mrs. Hawker, with a fore-
boding, no doubt, that the end was at hand, persuaded the
Vicar to sit to a photographer. He had not been taken for
some years, and always hated the process, so that consider-
able coaxing was necessary. It occurred to Mrs. Hawker
that she would like a remembrance of him as he appeared
when ministering in his Church, so she sent to Morwenstow
for his surplice, stole and biretta, and the likeness was taken
which is here reproduced. It shows too well the look of
dcatli upon his face.
The end came suddenly. On 13 August Mrs. Hawker
wrote to Mr. Godwin : — " ]\Iy dear Husband is alarmingly
ill. On Tuesday morning we were to have left for home,
but on Monday night, finding one of his arms and hand
dead and cold, I sent for the Doctor who discovered that a
clot of blood had settled in the artery of his left arm and that
tlie pulse lliat side was gone. On Wednesday his niind be-
gan to wander, & though he now knows us all he is not
636 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
conscious of what he says to us & is confined altogether to
his bed."
On the following evening, the 14th of August, an event
took place which has aroused more controversy, perhaps,
than any other episode in the life of a Parish clergyman.
To some readers this event is already known. Those who
have made Hawker's acquaintance for the first time in these
pages may or may not be surprised to learn that on his
deathbed he was received into the Church of Rome. The
ceremony was performed by Canon Mansfield, one of the
clergy attached to Plymouth Cathedral, who was summoned
by Mrs. Hawker to her husband's bedside. Her letters
show that he did not at this time ask her to send for the
priest, but that in doing so she felt that she was fulfilling
his desire. " I think I may venture to say to you," she
writes to a friend, " that Robert would never himself have
sent for him, because he had no doubt a prevision of all the
trouble his avowal would bring upon me after his death, &
his great love made him willing to risk the salvation of his
soul rather than bring by his own act possible misery on me.
That was Robert Hawker's character."
In this chapter, however, we are concerned with events,
and these, it would seem, can be best described in the words
of those who were with the Vicar at the last, namely, his
wife and a lady. Miss Savage, who was then acting as gover-
ness to the children. The latter writes, " We were all packed
on the Monday (9 August) ready to start on the Tuesday,
when we were stopped at about sev^en in the evening. We
then hoped that we might leave in a few days ; but the doctor
said that Mr. Hawker would never leave Plymouth again.
, . . On Thursday his pulse was weaker, and Mrs. Hawker
then sent for John Olde (his manservant) as we found it very
difficult to move him. . . . On Friday John came. ]Mr.
Hawker expressed his joy at seeing him & thanked him in
DEATH-BED SCENE 637
his own words. On the same evening he had a visit from
young Dr. Square, knew him perfectly and talked to him.
I saw and stayed with him for some time ; he was quite
conscious ; knew everything & each of us who attended to
him. On the Saturday morning I was present when he was
told that Canon Mansfield was coming that evening to receive
him into the Church. [Miss Savage, it may be mentioned,
was not a Roman Catholic]. I shall never forget the scene.
He looked so peaceful, & was so full of thankfulness."
" When I told my Husband what I had done," writes
Mrs Hawker, " he raised himself instantly, &, seeming for
the moment as if all bodily anguish was forgotten, exclaimed,
'Thank God, the Church, & Pauline.' 'Tide of Glory,'
'Tide of Joy,' The Gloria in excelsis Deo, to the end — then
the Te Deum. Hitherto the penitential Psalms had been
constantly on his lips. But, on that Eve of the Assumption,
the last day of his life, after he had heard that the desire
of his Soul was about to be satisfied, he repeated all joyful
Canticles, & again & again & again these two verses : ' What
shall I render to the Lord for all that he hath rendered unto
me .-* I will take the Chalice of Salvation & call upon the
name of the Lord.'
" Once he lifted his hand & pointing towards the closed
door, as if he saw a supernatural form, said, ' His banner
Over me was love.'
" When Canon Mansfield entered the room, although they
had never met, my Husband gave him an earnest welcome
and carried his hand to his lips — what followed is sacred to
the memory of the dead.
" At twenty minutes past eight o'clock on the morning of
the Feast of the Assumption of Our Blessed Lady the Soul
of Robert Stephen Hawker passed into eternity. After his
body was laid decently and in order, all who gazed upon
him were struck with the look of youth and peace upon his
638 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
face. It brought to mind his teaching, that in the Resurrec-
tion the Arisen dead will be of the age of Our Blessed Lord
— the Young Man of Nain — Lazarus — the Ruler's Daughter
— in middle life. Those who die old will renew their strength.
The child will grow to the perfect stature of the fulness of
the man."
The funeral took place on 18 August 1875. In accord-
ance with the dead man's taste, purple instead of black was
worn by the mourners. The coffin was of oak, with a plain
brass cross upon the lid, bearing the inscription —
" Robert Stephen Hawker.
For 41 years Vicar of Morwenstow,
Who died in the Catholic Faith,
On the Feast of the Assumption of Our Blessed Lady,
1875.
Aged 71.
Reqiiiescat in Face."
"All was done," wrote Mrs. Hawker, " in accordance with
my own expressed wishes, based upon indirect suggestions
of my Husband's. The first Sunday evening we were in
Plymouth he attended the only Service at the Cathedral at
which he was ever present. Returning home he said, ' How
much I should like to pass a night in that Cathedral ! ' For
this reason his body was lodged there on the night previous
to his interment — And for the rest, I bore in mind the
charge given by the bold Crusader Sir Ralph de Blanc-
minster in my Husband's own Poem : —
" ' Let Mass be said and requiem sung,
And that sweet chime I loved be rung.
Those sounds along the Northern wall
Shall thrill me like a trumpet-call.' "
The illustration shows the granite cross over the grave in
'" Hir.,,, 'M, ,,, '" Ktf
iiii', c.k.w i;, IN I'l.^Miiriii i kmk i kkv.
■| li.' \u-. .iptii.n i-iitul ihc lia-r .if tin- Cro.. is ;i line iVoiu ■■ Tlic (.lu^-t -i" ll:r S.m-ra.il ; "
■• I U-. .1,1,1 ihil Ik- foii;..ttcn in ll,i- laiiil.'
On ill, ,.ili, 1 M,k' ,,(■ th,' l-iiiibsl.in,' an- in^, liln,! \\u- «,.r,l- ,,rS. \!,.ni,a'-, la-I iirav,r:
■■1,.\ ihi- li mK- anvuluT,-; l,u imI ,. iniarn.' 1 ab ,ul I'lat. Ill,' -nU lliin- I a^k <■(
\,.ri i-, that v>ia'niak,- r.Mii'-Milivan,-.; ,,f Ml.- h ■( <y : []n- aliir .if ili,' l,..r,l -wUviv-
- I ■V.;- V- 1 an." S, Movi' A.
HAWKER'S GRAVE 639
Plymouth Cemetery, where, eighteen years later, his wife
was laid at his side. At the back of the cross are inscribed
the words of St. Monica's last prayer, which Hawker had
been fond of quoting, and which, it will be remembered,
forms the subject of one of Matthew Arnold's sonnets : —
" LAY THIS BODY ANYWHERE. BE NOT CON-
CERNED ABOUT THAT. THE ONLY THING I ASK
OF YOU IS, THAT YOU MAKE REMEMBRANCE OF
ME BEFORE THE ALTAR OF THE LORD WHERE-
SOEVER YOU ARE.
"S. MONICA.''
The words engraved on the top of the granite block, round
the base of the cross, are those of a line in ' The Quest of
the Sangraal ' —
" I would not be forgotten in this land."
CHAPTER XXIX
Secessional.
"He sleeps in yonder nameless ground,
A cross hath marked the stone ;
Pray ye, his soul in death hath found
The peace to life unknown."
The Cell by the Sea.
Everyone who treads the churchyard path at Morwenstow
must regret that Hawker's grave is not to be found among
the quiet stones that bear witness to his pastoral care. But
though his body must He in aHen ground, the spirit and the
memory are here, and will remain here so long as the
ancient church endures. These thoughts were finely ex-
pressed in the memorial verses of Mr. Henry Sewell Stokes,^
' The Plaint of Morwenstow.' —
"That he was brave the white-haired cragsmen tell,
Round all the coast from Hartland to Pentire ;
And shipwreck'd mariners remember well
How grand he look'd when flash'd the beacon-fire.
" As down the cliff he rush'd against the gale,
Well might he seem the Angel of the Storm ;
While his deep voice the stranded bark would hail,
His strong arm stretch to save some gasping form.
' Hawker's own criticism of another elegy by Mr. Stokes may appropri-
ately be recalled here. On 5 March 1869 he wrote to him: — "Thank you
for allowing me to see the lines on the deaths of Mr. Foster and his son. I
can better admire than exceed the touching simplicity and pathos of your
verses — clear, subdued, and thrilling as ever dirge should be."
640
AN ELEGY ON HAWKER 641
*' When falls Tintagel's tower, its solemn chime
In Hawker's rhythm will echo on the blast,
And still repeat, ' Come to thy God in time ! '
And say to each, ' Come to thy God at last ! '
" He heard and went : but where his dust should sleep.
Tears on a vacant sepulchre are shed ;
And still the cry comes from Morwenna's steep,
Complaining that they bring not home the dead.
•'The seabirds miss him on the headland's verge.
And wailing seek their guardian 'mong these graves ;
And to the cavern'd shore's Aeolian dirge
Succeeds the ' De profundis ' of the waves.
" Rest where he may, this place is hallow'd ground :
Genius, Love, Duty, tried by crucial pain.
Here in one noble human mould were found.
The secrets of his soul with God remain,"
The author of these lines expressed, with equal felicity, the
view taken by large-minded people of the closing- episode
in Hawker's life, — "To infer from his reception into the
Roman Catholic Church on his deathbed that he had de-
liberately practised deception and hypocrisy during any
portion of his long life, is to do cruel wrong to his character.
& memory ; and, notwithstanding the unhappy controversy
that has arisen, there are few who really knew him who will
not continue to regard him as a true man, a genuine poet,
and a sincere Christian. , . . But more cruel still than the
post mortefn inquisition into his mental condition during the
few days and hours before his decease, is the curiosity that
would intrude into the chamber where he was soothed and
comforted in his mortal agony by his devoted wife, the
mother of his children. While the departed receives charity
and respect, let no injustice or unkindness be done to the
bereaved,"
2 s
642 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
At the time of Hawker's death there were not many able,
Hke Mr. Stokes, to repress the impulses of the odium theo-
logicuni. A bitter newspaper controversy raged for many
weeks. It is the anxious hope of all concerned in the pre-
paration of the present volume that this controversy may not
be reopened. Let us bear in mind the words of Tenny-
son—
" He gave the people of his best :
His worst he kept : his best he gave :
My Shakespeare's curse on clown and knave,
Who will not let his ashes rest."
As Professor Huxley wrote, " Few literary dishes are less
appetising than cold controversy."
At this distance of time, nevertheless, we can look back
upon the event more calmly and dispassionately, and it seems
only fair to the memory of the dead that certain considera-
tions should be urged on behalf of those who cannot answer
for themselves.
If, on the one hand, we decide that Hawker was received
into the Roman Church with the consent of his faculties, we
must not condemn him for not seceding before. It is
obvious that to the very last he cherished a deep affection
for the national Church as an institution, as well as a belief
in the efficacy of her sacraments. It was only with her
temporary leaders, and the rationalistic Spirit of the age,
that his quarrel lay. A still deeper love, linked with the
associations of forty years, bound him to the lonely altar at
which the Church of England — " our dear old Church," as
he called her in 1874 — had appointed him to minister. Let
no one say that he failed in duty, either to flock or fold.
The precise date at which convictions change it is never
possible to fix. Such changes take place gradually, insensibly,
and with much shifting of the vane. A temperament like
FOR AND AGAINST 643
Hawker's was peculiarly liable to veer, now East, now West,
with every wind of impulse. He would take different sides
at different times, and with equal vehemence.
Only a few weeks before his death he was conversing with
a Plymouth gentleman, Mr. John Shelly, who writes — " He
spoke to me always as an English Churchman, admiring and
loving the Roman Church and its Bishops here, Cardinal
Wiseman certainly more than Cardinal Manning, and with a
great affectionate reverence for the Pope, but at our last
interview I was putting forward some reasons which I did
not think conclusive but weighty in favour of the doctrine of
the infallibility of the Pope, and he argued very strongly and
earnestly against it. He always spoke of his return to
Morwenstow to take up his work again there as a Priest of
the Church of England, and though I knew of his interest
in and affection for the Roman Church, and that he con-
tributed to Roman periodicals, I was not prepared to
hear that he had been received into the Roman
Church."
Now in thus arguing against Infallibility Hawker must
have been either sincere or deranged. His idea of con-
sistency, wc must remember, was that five minutes must
elapse between the expression of one view and its opposite.
[See page 220.] We must remember, too, the influence of
opium on a mind and body broken by age, anxiety and disease.
But most of all we must remember that it is not for us to sit
in judgment, and that questions of this kind rest between a
man's conscience and his Maker.
If, on the other hand, we decide that Hawker when in
health did not desire to secede, there is no ground for
attributing to his wife anything but an error of judgment.
She was not, as has been stated, a Roman Catholic before
her marriage, but had been brouglit up in the Church of
England. She joined the Cluirch of Rome after her
644 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
husband's death. The responsibility which she assumed in
summoning the priest did, as she foresaw, bring great trouble
upon herself. From a worldly point of view she had nothing
to gain, and everything to lose, by such a step. From this
point of view, her action was certainly rash. At the same
time it was the action of a brave, unselfish woman, whose
one thought was her husband's happiness. A worldly
woman would have regarded the opinion of the world, and
the effect on her own social position. Mrs. Hawker chose
the difficult, unpopular course, which involved the estrange-
ment of friends, the attacks of enemies, and the beginning
of life anew with a prospect of poverty.
The following two letters received by Mrs. Hawker show
the feelings entertained for the Vicar of Morwenstow by
brother-clergymen of the Church of England who were best
acquainted with his theological opinions : —
" Broomholm, Dumfriesshire. Aug. 21, 1875.
" Dear Madam,
..." Though I have never seen Mr. Hawker, I
have been in correspondence with him for the last 25 years,
and I have a number of very interesting and remarkable
letters which I have never had the heart to destroy. In this
way I came to know him very well and grew much attached to
him and now the sudden announcement of his having
departed this life makes me feel very sad. It is one of the
regrets of my life that I have never seen him and that when
staying with Mr. Hockin of Phillack I was unable to make
my way to Morwenstow as the good Vicar wished. I
have always thought of him as of one born some 500
years too late — a thoroughly mediaeval and Dantesque
mind. . .
If you have a Photograph to spare I should treasure it as
TRIBUTES 645
a most valued memorial of him whom having not seen I
have loved. . . .
" Your sincere and faithful friend,
William West."
" All Saints Vicarage,
"Lambeth. 25 August 1875.
" Madam,
"You may perhaps know me by name as one who
had the high privilege of your husband's friendship for a
quarter of a century. Every scrap of letter he wrote me I
have from the first carefully preserved. His death gave me
a severe shock. I lived in the hope of seeing him again. I
should be so deeply grateful if you would give me a line with
regard to his end. There was no single clergyman in the
Church of England for whom I had a deeper or heartier
reverence, & I pray God that we may meet in a better world.
With every respectful sympathy for you & an apology for
this intrusion,
" I am, Madam, Yr. faithful Servant,
" Frederick George Lee."
In September 1875 Mrs. Hawker wrote to Dr. Lee : —
" In a position such as mine is now, when so many are
ready to cast a stone at one to whom they were not worthy
to hold a candle, such a tribute as your Poem is as Balm in
Gilead." The poem is given here,
"On The Death Of a Poet Priest.
I
" Not where th' Atlantic sighs upon the shore
Of the most sacred station of a saint ; —
Not where uprises Ocean's ceaseless plaint
Or swells lis fury to tempestuous roar ;
646 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
Not near God's acre, which he loved so well,
Where sunbeams creep athwart Morwenna's shrine,
Where Sacrament is shed, and signs divine
Speak of a time when seas shall no more swell ;
But near the confines of his boyhood's home,
(Now work is done and stormy skies grow black.
Changes too rude ; more dangerous the track ; )
Came the short summons of his Master, "Come,
O faithful servant blest." That Garden grows
Heaven-sunned the Mystic Sharon's blood-red Rose.
II
" So, on the day when Blessed Mary slept,
But lived, by grace encircling Her, to stand
In golden vesture, Queen, at God's Right Hand,
Her client likewise closed his eyes. Friends wept.
Because of separation, round his bed ;
Then joyed, with deepening thankfulness, that he
Should pass the waves of Earth's sore-troubled sea
With pleading mother's smile above him shed.
Fret not. Our Inn, the Church, hath rooms diverse :
He passed from one to another here. Then on
Where angel-guardians, sheltering, wait to guide
God's servants to the Valley's other side.
Scaring all demons, smit with eternal curse
To their dark lairs. Soon upward towards God's throne."
Good Jesus, mercy. Mary help. That way
Most surely brightens to a perfect day.
The gist of Dr. Lee's Memoir is contained in a letter
v^hich he wrote to John Bull before its publication.
" From it " [the Memoir], he says, " it will be seen that his
faith in the Established Church was seriously weakened
(i) By the appointment of Dr. Temple, Editor of the infidel
' Essays & Reviews,' to Exeter ; and (2) that it was positively
undermined by the action of the English Bishops in the
CARDINAL NEWMAN'S VIEW 647
passing of the Public Worship Regulation Act. That Mr.
Hawker was a Roman Catholic for years I know to be
wholly and altogether false, as correspondence in my
possession abundantly and most conclusively shows."
Mr. Godwin, to whom Hawker's most intimate letters
were addressed, wrote in his Preface to the poems, with
reference to his secession : — "To those best acquainted with
the workings of his inner life, this step did not cause the
least astonishment or surprise."
A letter written by Cardinal Newman to a friend
about this time expresses the view which he took of
Hawker's death-bed change. He of all men was able to
understand the difficulties, and to sympathise with the pain
which such a change involves. It is not surprising, there-
fore, that he touches on the question in a humane and tolerant
spirit.
" Till we die ourselves," he says, " we are no judges of the
thoughts and sentiments which come over a dying man, if he
is himself — and therefore, while we live, we cannot be judges
of his acts, and if we attempt to assign motives to them, we
are going beyond our warrant.
" Moreover, Mr. Hawker was, if reports are to be trusted,
eccentric in some points, and would be understood by few,
even in his lifetime.
" I never saw him, but from time to time, and shortly
before his death, I had letters from him."
The Athe72(cuni of 25 March 1876 contained extracts from
Hawker's correspondence with Mr. Maskell which are difficult
to explain on any other theory than that he had long been, at
least, favourably disjjosed to Rome. The letters, however,
from whicli these passages were taken, do not appear to have
been preserved, and quotations without the context are never
satisfactory.
Private letters always take a tone and a bias from the
648 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
character and opinions of their recipient, and Mr. Maskell was
a Roman CathoHc. As Tennyson says : —
" Sender and sent-to go to make up this,
Their offspring of this union."
Mr. Maskell recognised this principle in the interpretation
which he placed upon them.
" No observation need be made," he says, " which can
be understood or intended to deduce from them, as a
certainty, that for many years his mind had been fully,
firmly and absolutely determined with regard to the claims
of the Catholic Church upon his obedience. . . I cannot
believe this of Robert Hawker ; I cannot believe it of any
man.
..." One assertion, at least, may be made. None among
the many who knew him, especially those of his own parish,
will ever think of Robert Hawker without remembering his
genial manner and kindliness of heart ; his unwearied
hospitality ; his hatred of the misuse of power ; his readi-
ness at any cost to resist oppression, not of himself only but
of others ; and, above all, his love and tenderness for the
poor. Qualities such as these may well serve to cover, if
they could be named, a multitude of sins."
The testimony of Mr. Maskell in this matter is important,
as he might fairly be expected to be biassed in favour of the
Church to which he himself belonged. In a letter to Mrs.
Hawker he says : —
"July 28, 1871.
" I can only adhere to my own impressions, viz : that
until within a day of his death, Mr. Hawker's course of duty
was not plain before him.
. . . "I cannot put my view of the case more clearly
A THORNY SUBJECT DISMISSED 649
than in this way — if Mr. Hawker had died in the Anglican
Church, I should not have been surprised, nor thought him
insincere in his belief. On the other hand, when the late
Bishop of Exeter died, I was very much surprised, and
disappointed. My belief from his language and old con-
versations had long been that he would send for a priest ^ :
my belief was not so as regards Mr. Hawker, equally
judging from his previous actions and language."
And now it is well that this thorny subject should be
finally dismissed. I have endeavoured to treat it in a
perfectly impartial spirit, not with a view to provoking
argument, but merely lest the well-informed person should
arise and say, "There is this, or this, that you have not
mentioned," and thus cause a repetition of the controversy.
At the same time I have not thought it advisable to revive,
from the mass of newspaper literature bearing on the sub-
ject, every letter or reported conversation. These at the
time were in no case conclusive, and would not be so now.
Doubtless the evidence here given will obtain different
verdicts in different courts. In these matters men mostly
believe what they wish to believe.
' The fact that Mr. Maskell's relations with Bishop Phillpotts were of a
most intimate character lends weight to this remark.
CHAPTER XXX
Conclusion.
" So now farewell, my lieges, fare ye well,
And God's sweet Mother be your benison."
The Quest of the Sangraal.
When Mr, Godwin's collected edition of Hawker's poems
appeared in 1879, Mrs. Hawker sent a copy to Longfellow,
who again bestirred himself most kindly in promoting the
sale in America. In writing to her he said — " Most of the
poems, as you know, have long been familiar to me ; but I
have been reading them again, and find the old impression
of their strength and beauty deepened by the re-perusal."
In the year following the appearance of the collected
poems, a Civil List pension of ^80 a year was granted to
Mrs. Hawker, on the recommendation of Mr. Gladstone.
In reply to her letter of thanks he wrote : —
" Hawarden Castle,
" Chester. 19 Sept. /80.
" Dear Madam,
" I was much pleased to receive your note, and
am truly glad to think that my recommendation to Her
Majesty is so appreciated.
" I hope it will increase your satisfaction, if I assure you
that the grant of the pension was not the result of any
solicitation, nor even of sympathy, however just that may
650
LETTER FROM MR. GLADSTONE 651
have been, but was awarded on the ground of true poetical
merit.
" I remain, dear Madam,
" Your faithful servant
"W. E. Gladstone.
" Mrs. Hawker."
We must now say farewell to the companion with whom
we have been walking step by step through life, and we
stand for a moment, at the end of the journey, to look
back over the ground that we have traversed. What has
his companionship been worth ? and whither has it led
us ? What is his claim to be remembered among men ?
These questions, which naturally arise at the end of a
biography, every reader will answer for himself.
Robert Stephen Hawker lived apart from the world.
He was restricted early to a narrow sphere of action, from
which he never emerged. It is impossible to avoid the
reflection that his powers were to a certain extent wasted
in his isolation, and that if he had had more scope he
might have done greater things. And j^et how much we
might have missed that goes to make his charm ! Much
of his originality, his independence of mind, and his de-
lightful eccentricities would have worn away among the
conventions of a town. One cannot picture him living
anywhere but at Morvvenstow, in his lonely glen, by the
brow of his great cliffs, within the hearing of his beloved
sea.
When we come to assign his final place in English
literature, we are again compelled to acknowledge a sense
of disappointment. He never did himself justice. A
poet who at the age of sixty could write " The Quest of
the Sangraal " ought to ha\'e produced much more work of
equal quality. He seemed incapableof sustained effort, and,
652 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
where he had imagined an epic, succeeded onlyin realising a
fragment, unsatisfying from its very splendour. His mind
was like a billow of mid ocean, rolling along with mighty force
and volume, but without direction. His literary power ex-
pended itself on the innumerable, disconnected paragraphs
which fill his note-books. If only he had continued his
Quest! But it was too late! Old age was upon him, and
troubles were increasing. That which he did achieve, more-
over, was never appreciated at its proper value.
"Fame," as Milton tells us,
"is the spur which the dear spirit doth raise,
To scorn delights and live laborious days."
To some artistic natures praise and recognition are a
necessary food, and Hawker's energies in this respect were
starved. He dwelt outside the charmed circle wherein
reputations are mutually promoted, and he never caught
the public ear. But since his death, as he himself pro-
phecied, his fame has continued to grow.
Mr. Gladstone's letter touches the keynote of his life ; for,
like the grant of public money to his widow, so that larger
pension of the world's praise will be awarded " on the
ground of true poetical merit." His actual achievement in
verse represents but a small part of the poetry that was in
him. It entered into all his written or spoken language ;
his prose, his letters, his sermons, his conversation. No
man ever more fully realized Matthew iVrnold's idea of the
Christian religion as 'concrete poetry.' Christianity was to
him a grand spiritual epic, culminating in the central
mysteries of the Incarnation and the Resurrection. The
Bible and the Church presented to his mind a series of
beautiful legends, and with Hawker there was no shadow of
difference between a legend and a fact. In theology he
accepted that which appealed to his imagination. Whatever
SUMMMING-UP 653
could be clothed in the language of poetry was, for him,
true. His literal interpretation of the Bible, demonology
and all, was, in an age of compromise, unparalleled, As
Matthew Arnold was called 'our last Greek,' so Hawker
might be termed 'our last Christian,' in the sense that St.
Francis of Assisi, for example, understood Christianity,
So in the region of thought he holds a singular position ; the
position of one who, living in the nineteenth century, was
dominated by the beliefs and sentiment of the Middle Ages.
He was an anachronism, entirely out of accord with the
modern spirit.
His social creed, as expressed in the concluding vision
of ' The Quest of the Sangraal, ' was reactionary.
" ' Ah ! haughty England ! Lady of the wave ! '
Thus said pale Merlin to the listening King,
' What is thy glory in the world of stars ?
To scorch and slay : to win demoniac fame,
In arts and arms ; and then to flash and die !
Thou art the diamond of the demon-crown,
Smitten by Michael upon Abarim,
That fell ; and glared, an island of the sea.
Ah ! native England ! wake thine ancient cry ;
Ho ! for the Sangraal ! vanish'd Vase of Heaven,
That held, like Christ's own heart, an hin of blood!'"
Scientific progress and modern commercialism were alike
repugnant to Hawker. The vaunted marvels of steam
and electricity merely filled him with that disgust which
prompted Ruskin's passionate reproach : — " There is not a
quiet valley in England that you have not filled with
bellowing fire ! " ^ If he was sometimes extreme in his
prejudice against science, overlooking its good results, he
commands more sympathy in his hatred of commercialism.
The contrast between the British Pharisee's Sunday pro-
' ' Sesame and Lilies,' p. 74 (14th Edition, 1894).
654 LIFE OF R. S. HAWKER
fessions and weekday practices is nowhere more scathingly
drawn than in the letters denouncing Exhibitions. From
Hawker, on his serious side, Christian England may learn
much as to the application of Christianity to life.
But he was also a humourist. His humour, to those
about him, was an inexhaustible delight. It sparkled on
the surface, and often served to conceal, even from himself,
depths of gloom beneath. Without it his existence would
have been indeed a tragedy. No one acquainted only with
his poems would imagine how great a part humour played
in his daily life : though much of it has been arrested for us
in his prose, his letters, and the recollections of his friends,
these are after all but echoes of the living voice.
And when we consider him in his dealings with his fellow
men, what is the impression that remains .-' It is that of an
unique and winning personality, strong enough to disregard
convention, and free to develope in solitude a peculiar
charm. In the retrospect of those long years at Morwen-
stow, we remember chiefly his charity to the poor, his care
for the shipwrecked, his hospitality to friend and stranger,
his tenderness to all living creatures, his whole-hearted
devotion to wife and child and home. Such is the abiding
memory of Robert Stephen Hawker.
" His life was gentle, and the elements
So mix'd in him, that Nature might stand up
And say to all the world, This was a man 1 "
RESURGES? 65s
RESURGES ?
(Written in the Hut at Morwenstow)
0 Spirit, where art thou fled
Thro' the deeps of air and sea ?
Wilt thou not return from the dead,
To be mortal one hour with me ?
1 gaze from thy crag-hewn seat
O'er the spreading, limitless main,
And the deep foam-thunders beat
At their rocky bars in vain.
The land still wars with the deep.
And the storm sweeps valley and hill :
But the dead rise not yet from their sleep.
And the stormy Spirit is still.
Will the dead rise up from the past.
When the dark gates open to me ?
Shall I greet thee, O Spirit, at last.
On the verge of that vaster sea ?
C. E. B.
APPENDIX I.
The Hawker Memorial Window.
This is an age of literary shrines and pilgrimages, and it was
fitting that there should be at Morwenstow some visible memorial
of him to whom the place owes its very identity, and with whom
its name is indissolubly linked.
Accordingly some two or three years ago a local movement
was begun with a view to collecting funds for this purpose, and
as a first result two new bells were hung in the church tower,
one of them, the leading bell, being dedicated to Hawker's
memory, and inscribed with words from his own ballad ' The
Silent Tower of Bottreaux ' : —
" COME TO THY GOD IN TIME,
COME TO THY GOD AT LAST."
The other new bell was inscribed to the memory of the late Miss
Ann Elinor Shearme, who had provided for the cost of the bell in
her will.
It was felt, however, that there should be some more obvious
memorial of Hawker in the Church itself, and this has taken the
form of a beautiful stained glass window, of original and ap-
propriate design. Of the larger lights one is a restoration of the
mural painting discovered a few years ago in the chancel (see
page 46). Three others represent episodes in the Hfe of St,
John the Baptist, and the remaining two contain respectively the
figures of St. Morwenna and her brother St. Nectan. In the
smaller lights appear various objects in and around the Church
which are especially associated with the Poet-Vicar. Proceed-
ing from left to right we see the interior of the Church as in
Hawker's time. The Well of St. John, with Hawker and his
dog standing by, the Lych-gate, the Shield of David from a boss
in the chancel roof, the Churchyard Cross, the Manning Tomb
2 T 657
658 APPENDIX
(see page 8i), the Font, the Piscina, the Pentacle of Solomon,
the Figurehead of the Caledonia in the Churchyard, the Well of
St. Morwenna in the cliffs, and the exterior of the Church,
Running round the whole window, as a border, is the tracery
of the Vine, copied from the carving in the Church roof, which
s the subject of one of Hawker's sonnets.
The window was executed by Messrs Lavers & Westlake, of
Endell Street, Bloomsbury.
The unveiling ceremony took place on 8th September 1904,
and was performed by the Rev. John Tagert, Vicar of Morwen-
stow, who has held the living since Hawker's death, and has now
reached the venerable age of ninety-two. The sermon on the
occasion was preached by the Rev. Prebendary Roger Granville,
a friend of Hawker's (see page 578), and a descendant of the
great Sir Bevill Granville of Stowe. The chief promoter of the
memorial was another friend of Hawker's, Mrs Waddon Martyn,
of Tonacombe Manor. One of the largest contributors was the
Earl of Rosebery. That Hawker is not forgotten across the
Atlantic is evidenced by the fact that the list also contains the
names (among others) of three American writers of to-day, Mrs
Louise Chandler Moulton, Miss Sarah Orne Jewett, and Mrs
James T. Fields.
At a public tea held in the village hall after the Dedication
Service, Mr Francis Coutts read aloud his poem on the occasion,
which, in a slightly altered form, is to be found in his recently
published volume, ' Musa Verticordia.'
" MORWENSTOW.
"Nature bestows on every place
A gloom, a glory, or a grace ;
But yet strange power belongs to ]\Ian
The hill and vale to bless or ban.
Here, by this black, forbidding coast,
Dwelt one who heard the heavenly host
Singing in every wind that blows,
In wave that breaks or stream that flows.
I m. IIVWKIK Ml.\h>KI\i U|M..i\\ i\ \1. iKW l.\- I , .\\ (Ilik
A MEMORIAL POEM 659
And surely deemed that love divine,
Whose tendrils all his church entwine,
Is not too distant to be won
By Nature's humblest orison.
Wherefore amid these moors and steeps
His spirit ever laughs and weeps,
Weeps with the storm or laughs with glee
For rhythmic laughter of the sea :
For who beside Morwenna's well
The "former gladness" tries to tell,
Or reads in Tonacombe's " mild " stream
The pathos of the poet's dream, —
Who lingers by St. Nectan's Kieve,
Watching the " foamy waters " leave
Their mossy cave, to seek for rest
In Severn Sea's unslumbering breast, —
Who strays where rushy Tamar spills
Her new-born flood in slender rills,
Unguessing in her modest source
The "goodly channel" of her course, —
Who pauses reverently to con
The sacred well-house of St. John,
Whose fountain feeds the lustral bowl
Wherein is laved each infant soul, —
What pilgrim — sinner, saint, or sage, —
Who ponders here a vanished age.
By main or moor, by holy grot
Or mystic knoll, remembers not
The name of Hawker ? Honoured long
In Cornwall for his life and song.
And now in British hearts enshrined,
A man at peace with God, in friendship with
Mankind.
Francis Coutts."
APPENDIX II.
A BIBLIOGRAPHY
Of R. S. Hawker's Books, Leaflets, and Contributions to
Magazines, etc, in order of date.
{The titles of Volumes are printed in Capitals.)
TENDRILS. By Reuben. Hatchard & Son, London. 1821.
' To a Faded Flower.' The English Chronicle and Whitehall E-uening Post,
8 Sept. 1821.
'The Song of the Western Men ' (Anon.). The Royal Devonport Telegraph and
Plymouth Chronicle, 2 Sept. 1826.
'Pompeii,' A Prize Poem ; recited in the Theatre, Oxford, 27 June 1827.
D. A. Talboys, Oxford. (Reprinted in 'Oxford English Prize Poems.'
Talboys, 1828, and in The South De-uon Monthly Museum, Vol IV., No. 21,
p. 121, I Sept. 1834.)
'Down With the Church.' Broadside, signed 'A Man,' and dated 2 May
1 83 1. T. & W. R. Bray, Launceston.
RECORDS OF THE WESTERN SHORE. Oxford, D. A. Talboys. 1832.
' Warbstow Barrow.' South Devon Monthly Museum, Vol III, No 17, p. 200,
I May 1834. (Title afterwards altered to ' Trebarrow. ')
'The Swan.' South Devon Monthly Museum, III, No. 17, p. 214, I May 1834
POEMS. Containing the second series of 'Records of the Western Shore.
J. Roberts, Stratton. 1836.
• Questions and Answers on the Second Birth from Holy Writ.' By Rev.
R. S. Hawker, Stratton, Perry. 184 — . 8vo, pp. 8.
'Minster Church, and the Confirmation Day,' 17 Aug. 1836. Brochure of
six leaves, printed for private distribution.
'The Minster of Morwenna ' (' Morwennas Statio'). Signed 'Procul.'
British Magazine, 1840.
'A Welcome to the Prince Albert.' Submitted to the Queen on the
approach of her Majesty's marriage. By the author of 'Pompeii.''
Talboys, Oxford. Rivington, London, etc. 1840,
660
BIBLIOGRAPHY 66i
ECCLESIA, Rivington, London. Talboys, Oxford, etc. 1840.
'The Signal of Laneast.' IVestem Luminary (Exeter), 8 Nov. 1842. (Two
unsigned pieces in the same paper might be by Hawker, but there is
nothing to prove it. They are ' Lines addressed by a Clergyman to
Three Young Friends on their return home,' in the issue of 18 Jan. 1841,
and 'Wisdom — Job, 19, xxviii,' on 7 March 1843.)
REEDS SHAKEN WITH THE WIND. James Burns, London. 1843.
'A Secret Prayer offered up at the Altar of Morwenstow Church thrice
every Day in Lent (1843) until March 27th,' Privately printed at a
broadside. (See page 169).
'The Poor Man and his Parish Church.' (Second Edition). Edward
Nettleton, Plymouth. 1843. 8vo. pamphlet. (This poem was
reprinted in the Englishman's Magazine, Aug. 1843, P- ^^^> ^^^ i" 'Days
and Seasons, or Church Poetry for the Year,' Henry Mozley & Sons,
Derby, 1844.)
RURAL SYNODS. London, Edwards & Hughes. 1849. (See page 172).
Article on The Offertory. The English Churchman. 1844.
'The Offertory.' A letter to J. Walter, Esq. Bearwood. 27 Nov. 1844.
•London. Sold by Eneas Mackenzie, m Fleet Street.' 1844. (See
page 174).
REEDS SHAKEN WITH THE WIND. The Second Cluster. James
Burns, London. 1844.
[FOLLOW ME : or, LOST AND FOUND. A Morality from the German.
By C. E. H., Morwenstow. James Burns, London, 1844. (This book
by Hawker's first wife is included because he had some share in the
translation.)]
['Earl Sinclair.' Translated by Mrs. Hawker from the German of Oehlen-
schlager. Sharpens London Magazine, 6 Dec. 1845.]
' Genoveva ' Reprinted in German Ballads, Songs. &c. Edited by Miss
Smedley. James Burns, London. 1845.
'The Field of Rephidim.' A Visitation Sermon in the Diocese of Exeter
written by the Vicar of Morwenstow in Cornwall, and delivered in the
Church of St. Mary Magdalene, Launceston, June 27, 1845, by T. N.
Harper, B.A. London, Edward & Hughes, 1845.
ECHOES FROM OLD CORNWALL. Joseph Masters, London, 1846.
[' A Legend of Cornwall.' (By X). Sharpens London Magazine, 11., No. 32,
p. 81, 6 June 1846. (This ballad is included among Hawker's works in
the ' Bihliotheca Cornubiensis,' but there is no evidence that it is by him, and
he is not known to have used the signature 'X ' elsewhere.)]
[THE MANGER OF THE HOLY NIGHT. From the German of Guido
Gorres. By Mrs. C. E. Hawker. London, Joseph Masters, James
Burns. 1847.]
662 APPENDIX
'A Voice from the Place of S. Morwenna in the Rocky Land, uttered to the
Sisters of Mercy, at the Tamar Mouth ; and to Lydia, their Lady in the
Faith, " whose heart the Lord opened." ' Joseph Masters, London.
1849.
• Folk Lore. The First Mole in Cornwall ; a Morality from the Stowe of S.
Morwenna, in the Rocky Land.' Signed 'H.' Notes and Queries, istSer.,
II., p. 225, 7 Sept. 1850.
' Combs buried with the Dead.' Notes and Queries, ist Ser., II., p. 230, 7 Sept.
1850.
'North Side of Churchyards.' Notes and Queries, ist Ser., II,, p. 253, 14
Sept. 1850.
' Burial towards the East.' Notes and Queries, 1st Ser., II., p. 408. 16 Nov.
1850.
'Epitaph on a Child.' Notes and Queries, 1st Ser., III., p. 377, 10 May
1851.
'Thread the Needle.' Notes and Queries, ist Ser,, IV,, p, 39, 19 July 1851.
'The Ring Finger,' Notes and Queries, 1st Ser., IV., p. 199, 13 Sept, 185 1.
'Dole Bank,' Notes and Queries, 1st Ser,, IV,, p, 213, 20 Sept, 1851,
' A Cornish Churchyard by the Severn Sea.' Chambers's Edinburgh Journal.
N. S., Vol. 18, p. 317, 6 Nov. 1862.
' Jewish Superstitions.' Contains an explanation of 'The Shield of David.'
Willis's Current Notes, March 1852 (p, 22),
' Hoax on Sir Walter Scott,' Notes and Queries, ist Ser,, VI,, p. 44, 10 July
1852.
'The Ganger's Pocket.' Household Words, Vol. VI., pp. 515-517, 5 Feb.
1853.
'The Light of Other Days.' Honsehold Words, Vol. VIII,, pp. 305-306, 26
Nov. 1853.
'Arscott of Tetcott.' Willis's Current Notes, Dec. 1853 (pp. 97-8), under
heading, 'Ballad Lore, Cornwall.'
'A Carol of the Kings.' Notes andQueries, 1st Ser., IX., 53, 21 Jan. 1854.
Note by Hawker re 'The Minster of Morwenna,' correcting misquotation.
Notes and Queries , ist. Series, IX., 135, 11 Feb. 1854.
A reply to ' Eirrionach ' on ' Legends of Bees.' Notes and Queries, ist. Ser., IX.,
231, II March 1854.
Note on 'A Christ Cross Rhyme.' Notes and Queries, ist Ser, IX., 231, 11
March 1854.
Note on ' Sunday.' Notes and Queries, ist Ser., IX., 284, 25 March 1854.
'A Child's Epitaph.' Notes and Queries, ist Ser., IX., 481, 20 May 1854.
'Bosses in Morwenstow Church.' Notes and Queries, 1st. Ser., X, 123, 12 Aug.
1854.
BIBLIOGRAPHY 663
' Baal-Zephon.' IViUis's Current Notes, April 1855 (p. 29J.
'Legends on Bells.' JVillis't Current Notes, April 1855 (p. 30).
'Churchyards.' JVillis^s Current Notes, April 1855 (p. 31).
• Jewish Festival at Jerusalem ' (Morwenstow, May 17). Willis's Current Notes ^
May, 1855 (p. 35).
' The Grotesque in Church Architecture.' Willis's Current Notes, June
185s (p. 42).
' Doorhead verse over Vicarage Porch.' Willis's Current Notes, June 1855
(P-43)'
' Posture of the Buried Dead.' Willis's Current Notes, June 1855 (p. 44),
'The Symbolic Hand,' Willis's Current Notes, June 1855 (p. 45).
'Wayside Crosses.' Willis's Current Notes, June 1855 (p. 47).
'A Christ-Cross Rhyme.' Willis's Cnrrent Notes, Nov. 1855 (p. 86).
'The Bronze Galley of Sebastopol.' Willis's Current Notes, Nov. 1855.
(p. 90).
Thunder Storms on Great Deaths. Willis's Current Notes, Nov. 1855 (p. 92)
'The Doom-Well of St. Madron.' Willis's Current Notes, Dec. 1855 (p. 93).
'The Legend of Morwenstow.' Willis's Current Notes, Jan. 1856 (p. 7).
' A Letter to a Friend, containing some matters relating to the Church ; by a
Cornish Vicar.' London, Royston & Brown, 40 and 41 Old Broad
Street, 1857. 8vo., pp. 16.
Stray Verses of 'Yankee Doodle.' Willis's Current Notes, May 1857 (p. 36).
Contributions to J. T. Blight's 'Ancient Crosses & other Antiquities in the
South & East of Cornwall,' 1858, including ' Lines of Dedication to the
Prince of Wales,' etc.
' The Legend of St. Cecily.' T/ie Lamp, N. S., Vol. IV., i. p. 7. 3 July 1858.
'The Legend of St. Thekla.' The Lamp, N. S., Vol. IV., 3. p. 39. 17 July 1858.
'Miriam: Star of tbe Sea.' T/ic Z^w/, N. S., Vol. IV., 6. p. 87, 7 Aug. 1858.
'The Bier of Mary, Mother of God.' The Lamp, N. S., Vol. IV., 7. p. 103,
14 Aug. 1858.
' A Carol of the Kings.' Flyleaf, signed 'Nectan.' Dated 'The Epiphany
1859.'
'To Alfred Tennyson, Laureate, D.C.L. on his "Idylls of the King."'
Signed 'Ben Tamar,' Morwenstow, August, 1859. (Leaflet.)
' Aishah-Shechinah.' Leaflet, signed 'Breachan,' May i860.
'King Artliur's Waeshael.' Leaflet, signed 'Ben Tamar.' Dated 'Yule-
Tide, i860.'
Note to 'Song of the Western Men.' Notes and Queries, 2nd. Ser. , xi., p. 16,
5 Jan. 1861.
'The Comet.' Leaflet, dated July 1861.
664 APPENDIX
'Sir Beville.' Signed 'Breachan.' Notes and Queries, znd Ser, XII., 430, 30
Nov. 1861.
' The Brownie Bee. A Cornish Croon.' (' A Legend of the Hive.') Chambers's
Book of Days, I., 355.
* Birth of Edward of Carnarvon.' Chambers's Book of Days, I., 551,
* Song of the Western Men.' Chambers's Book of Days, I., 747,
« Mawgan of Melhuach.' Once a Week, 30 Oct. 1862.
' The Acland Statue.' Exeter Flying Post, 14 Oct. 1863.
THE QUEST OF THE SANGRAAL. Chant the First. Exeter, Printed
for the author. 1864.
'The Child Jesus.' Reprinted in 'Lyra Messianica,' (Rev. Orby Shipley) pp.
86-87. 1864.
'A Croon on Hennacliff.' All the Year Round, Vol. XII., p. 108, 10 Sept. 1864.
'Queen Guennivar's Round.' All the Tear Round, Vol. XII., p. 133, 17 Sept.
1864.
* Blue Eyes Melt : Dark Eyes Burn.' All the Year Round, 1864.
' The Signals of Levi.' Reprinted in ' Lyra Mystica,' (Rev. Orby Shipley) pp.
148-152, 1865.
' Pauline.' All the Year Round, 14 Jan. 1865,
•Ichabod.' The Weekly Register or Catholick Standard, 14 Feb. 1865.
■• The Remembrances of a Cornish Vicar.' All the Year Round, Vol. XIII.,
pp. 153-156, II March 1865.
'Down in Cornwall.' All the Year Round, XIII., 333-336 (afterwards entitled
' Holacombe ').
' Black John.' All the Year Round, Vol. XIII., pp. 454-456, 3 June 1865.
* Daniel Gumb's Rock.' All the Year Round, Vol. XV., pp. 206-210, 10 March
1866.
' Antony Payne : A Cornish Giant.' All the Year Round, Vol. XVI., pp. 247-
249, 22 Sept. 1866.
* Cruel Coppinger.' All the Year Round, Vol. XVI., pp. 537-540, 15 Dec. 1866.
'Sir Ralph de Blancminster.' Once a Week, Vol. III., pp. 167-8, 9 Feb. 1867.
(with illustration).
' Thomasine Bonaventure.' All the Year Rouud, Vol. XVII., pp. 276-280, 16
March 1867.
' The Botathen Ghost.' All the Year Round, Vol. XVII., pp. 501-504, 18 May
1867.
'A Ride from Bude to Boss.' Belgravia, Vol. III., pp. 328-337, Sept. 1867.
ST. NECTAN'S KIEVE, and RECORDS OF THE WESTERN SHORE.
Camelford, Richard Wakefield, 1868. (A reprint of 'Records of the
Western Shore,' 1832).
BIBLIOGRAPHY 665
Note on ' The Quest of the Sangraal,' claiming priority of publication from T,
Westwood. Notes and Queries , 4th Ser., I, 73, 25 Jan, 1868.
A Cornish Folk-Song, ' The Cuckoo.' Notes and Queries, 4th Ser., I., 480, 13
May i868.
CORNISH BALLADS and other Poems. Including a Second Edition of ' The
Quest of the Sangraal.' Oxford and London, James Parker & Co. 1869.
FOOTPRINTS OF FORMER MEN IN FAR CORNWALL. London, John
Russell Smith. 1870.
'The Fatal Ship.' Printed in The Sun, 1870. (Also as a leaflet.)
'Aurora.' Flyleaf, 10 Novr. 1870.
'The Carol of the Pruss.' Flyleaf, 24 Dec. 1870.
'Aurora.' Twenty-five copies reprinted by the Rev. W. Maskell, for private
circulation, 1873.
' A Canticle for Christmas,' 1874. (Leaflet).
POSTHUMOUS EDITIONS.
THE POETICAL WORKS OF ROBERT STEPHEN HAWKER. Col-
lected and arranged, with a preface, by J. G. Godwin. London, C. Kegan
Paul & Co. 1879.
THE PROSE WORKS OF REV. R. S. HAWKER. Including ' Footprints
of Former Men in Far Cornwall.' Edited by J. G. Godwin. William
Blackwood & Sons, Edinburgh & London. 1893.
CORNISH BALLADS. (Second Edition.) Oxford & London, James Parker
& Co. 1884.
THE POETICAL WORKS OF ROBERT STEPHEN HAWKER. Edited
with a Preface and Bibliography, by Alfred Wallis. John Lane, London
and New York. 1899.
FOOTPRINTS OF FORMER MEN IN FAR CORNWALL. (Complete
Prose Works.) Edited, with an introduction, by C. E. Byles. With
illustrations by J. Ley Pethybridge, etc. John Lane, London & New
York. 1903.
CORNISH BALLADS and Other Poems. (Complete Poetical Works with
additional Pieces previously unpublished). Edited, with an introduction,
by C. E. Byles. With illustrations by J. Ley Pethybridge, etc. John
Lane, London & New York. 1904.
APPENDIX III.
A LIST
Of Books, Articles, etc., relating to Hawker, by other
Writers (arranged alphabetically).
Athen<£um, 25 March 1876, and 17 June 1876. Reviews by Mr. W. Maskell
of Mr. Baring-Gould's 'Tlie Vicar of Morwenstow.'
Baring-Gould, Rev. S. ' The Vicar of Morwenstow.' London, H. S. King
& Co., 1876. New and Revised Edition, 1876. New and Revised Edi-
tion, Methuen & Co., 1899.
' Bibliotheca Cornubiensis.' Boase & Courtney. A Bibliography of Hawker,
I., 220.
' Biographical History, or Bibliographical Dictionary of the English Catholics,
From the Breach with Rome in 1534 to the Present Time.' By Joseph
Giliow. Vol. III., pp. 183-190. (London, Burns & Oates). Article
on Hawker.
Brushfield, Dr. T. N. 'Rev. R. S. Hawker and Old Ballads.' Western
Antiquary, VIII., 147 ; IX., 41-4, 85. 1889.
Byles, C. E. 'The Poet of Cornwall.' Articles in Th* Neiv Century Sevietv,
Deer. 1899, T/te Book Monthly, Aug. 1904, and The Bookman, Jany. 1905.
Collins, Mortimer. ' Sweet and Twenty.' Hawker is the original of" Canon
Tremaine " in this novel.
Courtney, W. P. See ' Dictionary of National Biography.'
CouTTs, Francis. ' Morwenstow.' A Poem on the dedication of a Memorial
Window to Hawker in Morwenstow Church on 8 Sept. 1904. Printed
in ' Musa Verticordia.' (Lane); also as a leaflet.
Collins, Frances. Memoir of Mortimer Collins, Vol. II., 40 and 52-3.
' Dictionary of National Biography.' Article on Hawker by W. P. Courtney.
Doyle, Sir Francis. 'Reminiscences and Opinions,' 1813-1885 (re 'Pom-
peii.' See page 33.)
Pagan, Rev. H. S. 'A Cornish Oddity.' The Churchman's Shilling Magazine,
October 1876.
Freeman, G. S. Article in Macmillaris Magazine, Deer. 1904.
666
HAWKER LITERATURE 667
Gilbert, Da vies. Article in the Gentleman' t Magazine for Nov. 1827, quotes
' Trelawny Ballad.'
Gloucestershire Notes and Queries, III., 22-24. * Trelawny Ballad.'
Gribble, Francis. Articles on Hawker in Tht Treasury, Dec. 1903.
Harris, Christopher. Four Articles on Hawker in John Bull, Sept. and Oct.
1876.
Haslam, Rev. W. 'From Death into Life.' London, Jarrold & Sons, 1897,
pp. 36-41. Account of visit to Morwenstow.
Household Words, VI., 155-6 and 234. {Re Trelawny), 'The Reason Why.'
Johnson, Lionel. ' Ireland and other Poems.' Poem on Hawker.
Lane, Mrs. John. Article entitled ' From Glastonbury to Morwenstow ' in
The Outlook, % Oct. 1904.
Lee, Dr. F. G. 'Memorials of the late Rev. R. S. Hawker.' London,
Chatto & Windus. 1876.
'On the Death of a Poet Priest.' Memorial Verses printed privately
as a quarto leaflet, 1876,
Longfellow. 'Poems of Places.' Includes 19 of Hawker's Ballads.
Macaulav, Lord. 'History of England.' Allusion to Trelawny Ballad and
Hawker under year 1868.
Macleane, Douglas. 'Pembroke College' (Oxford College Histories),
pp. 219-20. Couples Hawker with Thomas Lovell Beddoes.
Maskell, William. Pamphlet embodying reviews from the Athenaum, 1876.
Thirty copies privately printed.
Noble, J. Ashcroft. Essay on ' Hawker of Morwenstow ' in his volume
'The Sonnet in England.' Elkin Mathews and John Lane, 1893.
Notes and Queries, 2nd Series, X., 370, lo Nov. i860 (Trelawny).
2nd Series, XI., 16, 5 Jan. 1861 (Trelawny).
5th Series, V., 403-5 (article on Hawker by John Eglinton Bailey).
5th Series, V., 438 (Note by Frances Collins).
5th Series, V., 441-2 (Trelawny).
5th Series, V., 479 ('A Christ-Cross Rhyme').
5th Series, V., 524 (Note by J. E. Bailey).
5th Series, VI., 42-5.
8th Series, 266 (The Dirge).
Percy Society's Publication — ' Ancient Poems, Ballads, and Songs of the
Peasantry of England.' Edited by J. H. Dixon. 1846. (Includes
Trelawny Ballad.)
Sandys, W. 'Specimens of the Cornish Dialect,' 1846. Includes the
Trelawny Ballad.
668 APPENDIX
Scott, Sir W. Collected Poems, Vol. IV., p. 12. Note on Trelawny Ballad.
Stanley, Rev. Jacob (a Wesleyan Minister). ' Priestly Arrogance Exposed,
and Semi-Papal Assumption Refuted : in two Letters to R. S. Hawker,
Vicar of Morwenstow, Devon (w).' 184 — . 8vo.
Stokes, Henry Sewell. ' The Gate of Heaven, The Plaint of Morwenstow,
and other verses.' Bodmin, Liddell & Son, 1876.
'Trelawny Papers.' Edited by J. P. Baxter, 1884, p. 458. (Trelawny
Ballad.)
Western Antiquary, Feb. 1 88 9. Articles by Dr. T. N. Brush field, H. B. S.
Woodhouse, and * Philo-Trelawny ' on the Trelawny Ballad. VIII., 147 ;
IX., 41, 85.
Willis's Current Notes, III., 78 (1853). Notes on Trelawny Ballad.
Wright, W. H. K. 'Blue Friars,' pp. 10, 66 and 73.
INDEX
Aberdeen, VIII.
'Abide ye here with the Ass,' text of
sermon, 604
Abrahali, Mr. , Curate atMorwenstow,
630
Absalom's Pillar, 280
Abyssinian War, 569
Acland, Agnes, 480
Acland, Lady, 287, 435
Acland, Leopold, 537
Acland, Sir Thomas (loth Baronet)
36, 187, 219
, at Morwenstow, 241, 316, 525
, Hawker dines with, 244
, letters to, 13, 230
, MS. sent to, 368
, presents of live stock, 109, 389
• , statue at Exeter, 400
, wreck oi Bencoolen, 395
Act of Uniformity, 179
Adams family, 47
Adams, John, of Stanbury, 159
Adams, John Couch, the astronomer,
343
Adams, Mr., American Minister, 476
Adams, Sir William, 50, 119
Addison, Hawker criticises, 19
Agag, 603
Agbar, King, 377
' Aishah Shechinah,' poem, 424, 443
Alb. See Vestments
Alcohol, Hawker on use of, 328
Alford, Dean, 193
All Saints, Margaret Street, London
613
All Souls College, Oxford, 376, 381
All i/it Tear Round, Hawker writes
for, 499, 506, 511, ff'. See also
Appindix II.
Allen, Rev. J., 193
Alma, incident at, 305
Alonzo, The, wreck of, 164, 396, 511
669
Altar-cloth, 421
Altarnun, 3
Amalfi, books for sale at, 383
America, 382, 520
-, Civil War in, 347, 354, 361,
516
, Hawker known in, 658
' Ancient Crosses and other Anti-
quities,' etc, 263-4
Anderson, Rev. W. D., 203, ^S^jff,
408
Andrewes, Bishop, 383
Anerithmon gelasma, 191, 317, 373
Angels, 137, 228, 281, 337, 620-1
, take 6d. on account, 546
wingless, 232
Anglican Church. See Church of
England and Protestantism
'Anglican Orders,' Dr Lee's book on,
611
Animals, death of, 323
-, Hawker's love of, 102 ff, 333.
See also, horses, dogs, cats
■, immortality of, 105
names of cows, 454-5.
' Antony Payne,' 536
Apocrypha, 561
Appledore Life Boat, 461, 463
Aquinas, St Thomas, 122, 239, 384-6,
389. 391. 546) 55^- ^*^*^ ^Iso
' Summa Theologiz'
Arbroath Guide, The, 161
Archbishops, powers of, 200
Architecture, Church, Hawker on, 265.
See also Symbolism, Grotesque,
Gargoyles, Gennesaret
Argyll, Duke of, Tennyson's letter to,
415
' Arisen Dead, The,' 225, 638
Aristotle, 378
Armstrong Gun, 446
Arnold, Dr, 284, 'Latin Prose,' 19
670
INDEX
Arnold, Matthew, 284, 580, 619, 639,
652, on Cornish Revivals, 57
Arnold, Rev. E. P., 284. Report on
Morwenstow School, 619
Arnold, Thomas, son of Dr Arnold, 284
'Arscott of Tetcott,' 27, 250-1
Art Journal, The, 377
Ash Wednesday, 335
Ashburton, Lord, 231
Ashley, Lord, 214
Assumption, Feast of, 637
Athanasian Creed, 479
Athenaum, The, xi., 513; Hawker's
letters quoted, 647 ; letter of Mrs.
Hawker, xi.; Maskell's reviews, ix ;
15 ; Trelawny Ballad, 29. See also
Appendix II.
'Auceps,' pseudonym, 201
Augustine, St., 386, 513, 555, 621
' Aumry,' etymology of, 434
'Aunt Mary,' poem, 252-3. See also
' Modryb Marya ' and Appendix II.
' Aureje Veritates,' 546
'Aurora,' poem, 591 jf"
" Avide, Satan ! " 60
A-vonmore, wreck, X., 581
Axon, W. E. A., 271
Azrael, 596
B.A,, Hawker takes his, 34
' Baal-Zephon,' poem, 238, 253, 256,
280
Bacon, Lord, Hawker quotes, 246,
339.370
Bagot, Bishop, 217
Balaam's Ass, epigram, 94
Baldhu, the Vicar of, 185
Ballads, Hawker's, 262. See also
'Cornish Ballads,' 'Trelawny
Ballad,' Poetry
' Ballads and Legends of Cheshire,' 271
Baptism, 207
, aspersion, 560
, Hawker's ceremonial, 1 34jfj 140
, " My fee is j^iooo," 604
, parents at, 376
Barabbas, 571
Barbadoes, 334
Baring-Gould, Rev. S., viii., xi., 38, 80
, correspondence with Hawker,
599
-, domineering curate, 603
Baring-Gould, Rev. S., Dr, Hawker's
hymn, 6
, drunken coachman story, n6
, 'The Gaverocks,' 51
, Hawker's first marriage, 15
, Legend of Morwenna, 42, 599
, pillion story, 17
•, visitation sermon, 183, 544
Barlow, William, consecration, 610
Barn, wrecked by storm, 538-9, 564
Barnstaple, 480, 606
Bartholomew, Archdeacon, 39, 537
Bath, 515
, Earl of, 346
Bath and Wells, Bishop Bagot of, 217
■, origin of Bishopric, 510
Beards, 87, 356
Beasts, clean and unclean, 156
Beddoes, T. L., 20
Bees, habits of, 243 ; in Church roof,
488. See also ' Legend of the Hive '
and Appendix II.
Belgravia, 564
Bells in Morwenstow Church, 357, 657
' Ben Tamar,' pseudonym, 277
Bencoolen, wreck of, 395 jf".
Benedictines, the, 383
Berg, Hawker's dog, 204, 264, 353,
436 ; death of, 357
Betton's Charity, 381
Bible Christians, 57
Bibliothtca Cornubiensis , xii.
Bideford, 244-6
■, Tennyson at, 196
Bigamy, a case of, 333
' Binney, Major and Mrs.,' 510
Birds, 103, 109, 377, 532-3, 543, 554
Birthplace, Hawker's, i
' Black John,' 518, 522
Black Rock, The, 51, 231. See also
Featherstone
BlackivooS s Magazine , 262
Blake, William. See Dr. Hawker in
List of Illustrations
Blancminster,SirRalphde,542,555,638
" Blaspheming Dog 1 " 145
Blight, J. T., 195, 263, 266 ff. See
also ' Ancient Stone Crosses, etc.'
Bloxam, Dr., 19, 561
'Blue Eyes Melt, etc.', occasion ot
poem, 488, 498
Bodleian Library, The, 18
INDEX
671
Bodmin, 168, 170, 380
Bone, Rev. Canon, 93
"Bonner's successor," 594
'Book of Wraks,' 158
Books, Hawker's love of, zii, ^ji, 374,
378, 381/; 391, 419, 433, 558, 619
Boscastle, visits to, 32,196,201,472,632
Bossuet, 312
' Botathen Ghost, The,' 555
Box, Tommy, 488
Bradworthy, 372
Brag and Sham, Messrs, 372, 560
Brain fever. Hawker has, 471
Brantyngham, Bishop, 168
Braund, Dr., 117, 400
' Breachan,' 277
Bread Street, London, 565
Brewster, Sir David, 373
Bright, John, 247
Brimacombe family, 47, 71
" Broken purpose, A," 194-5, 259
Brompton, Hawker preaches at, 609
Brooke, W. T., 6
Brougham, Lord, 570
Brown Willy, mountain, 203
Browne, Rev. Ernest, 607
Brownie, Hawker sees a, 100, 440
Brunei, Sir Isambard, 546
Brushfield, Dr T. N., 271, 273
Bryant, Betty, 170
Buckland, F., 323, 357
Buckland Brewer, 245
Budd, Dr Richard, 116, 328, 473, 522-4,
568 ; photographs Hawker, 480
Buddhism, 368
Bude, 230
, Carew's description, 14
, castle, X., 489, 594
, church, 14, 37
, lifeboat, 78, 396, 460
, old pier, 265
, Tennyson at, 189
, visitations at, 3 3 9, 480,521, 607
• -, wrecks at, 13, 395
Budleigh Salterton, 288
BuUer, Mr., of Downes, 170
Bullcr, Sir J. Y., Hawker's lawsuit
with, 168 l/] 229, 326
Burial Act, 377
Burial of sailors, 161, 164, 307-8, 319,
398-9, 463, 465-6, 483, 566, 582.
See also Wrecks
Burial service, 475
Burns, Mr, publisher, 260
Burying Dissenters, 150
Bute, Marquis of, 557, 576
Byron, 193
Byttone, Bishop, 168
Cabs, Hawker on, 505
Cajetan's Notes on Aquinas, 392
Calcraft, Mrs. and Misses, 48X
Caledonia, wreck, 159 J\ Hawker
compared to Captain, 635
Calmet's Dictionary, 325
Calvinism, 295
Camden, historian, 265
Camelford, 213
Cann, Thomas, 362, 392, 402, 408,
425-6. 461, 468, 477. 483. 502. 58*
' Canticle for Christmas,' dzf^ff
Capern, Edward, 244
Carew's ' Survey of Cornwall,' 14, 51,
276
Carey, Dr., Bishop of Exeter, 34, 39
Carlisle, Earl of, xiv., 423-4, 428
Carlyle, Thomas, Speech at Glasgow,
541
Carnsew, Thomas, 335, 594
'Carol of the Pruss,' 592
Carrow, Hawker's pony, 105, 306,
311, 328, 332, 498
Carvure of Trinity, 265
Casebourne, G., 217
Cassock, 83^, 187. See also Dress
Catacomb Frescoes, 429
Cats, 108, 204, 409; " Grandfer," 349;
Lost pet, 348^?
Cattle Plague, 532-3
Catullus, 317
Caxton, ' Speculum Vitae Christi,' 489
' Cell by the Sea, The,' origin of poem,
54
Chalmers, Dr, 301
Chambers, Robert, 355-6; 'Book of
Days,' 356, 536 ; Chambers' Journal,
249 ; letter to Hawker, 23
Chancel, meditation in, 227, 366
Chanter, Rev. J. F., 617, 632
Charity, 117, 546; definition of, 602
Charles V., Emperor, 342
Charles Churcli, Plymouth, i, 4, \']" ff
Charms, 65, 373
Chatterton, 557 ; literary methods, 259
672
INDEX
Cheltenham Grammar School, Hawker
at, XV., 10
Cherub, asked to sit down, 443
Cheshire Archasological Society, 271
Child-birth, 528
Child-murder, cases of, 291, 331
Children, Hawker's love of, 99 ;
anxiety of, 490, 493-4
Children, Hawker's own, 534-5, 560,
574-5, 588, 598, 602
, birth of Morwenna, 526,529-30
, birth of Rosalind, 560
, birth of Juliot, 610
, their prayers, 567
, wish for a son, 530, 558, 563
Chimneys of Morwenstow Vicarage, 80
China, war in, 318
Chope, Mrs, funeral, 475
, R. Pearse, 207
, Rev. T. H., 85, 406, 608
Choughs, red-legged, 412
Christ. See Trinity, Second Person
of, and Mediator
' Christabel,' 270
' Christ-Cross Rhyme, A,' 259 j?"
Christian ]Viisccllany, I 56
Christmas customs, iiS, 597
Christophers, Rev. M., 156
Chronology, Biblical. See Time.
Church Herald, 620, 622
Church of England, Hawker's opinions
of, 512, 513, 514-5, 560, 610, dizff,
620, 622/, 642 jT
Disestablishment, 571
efficacy of sacraments, 577-8
" fading body of men," 575
Hawker despairs of, 616
incomes of clergy, 535
"No King in Israel," 537
private judgment the corner
stone of, 551
, Temple and Tait, 586. See
also Protestantism and Reformation
Church Rates, 150^, 227, 234, 247;
Gladstone's Bill, 1866, 542-3 ; Par-
ochial disputes, 147
Church (Morwenstow) restoration,
150^?, I99> 278#, 598-9,604, 616
, Hawker preaches in London
for, 612^
Church Rc-vreiv, 455
Churchwarden, letter to a, 178
Churchwardens, duties of, 180
Circle, symbol of eternity, 306
Circular, Hawker's, re pupils, 548
Clare, Miss L. T., 268^^
Classics, Hawker's opinion of, 18
Cleveland Gazette, Ohio, 258
Cleverdon, Uncle Tony, 69
Clift, Robin, 60
Clinton, Lord, 288, 422, 496, 522,
600, 631
Clive, Lord, 299
Cloutman, Mary, 337
Clovelly, 421, 515 ; wreck of Mar-
garet Quayle, \(>0 ff, 467
Clover crops, 491
Clyde, Vicar of Bradworthy, 202, 372
Coastguard, 230
" Cobden, a Village," 247
Cock, the, symbolism of, 381, 423,
428, 429, 451-2
Cockney style of literature, 511, 514,
522
Coffins, strange behaviour of, 334
Colenso, Bishop, 480-1, 511
■, family history, 512-3
Coleridge's Oxford Bill, 542
Collins, J. Churton, 193
Collins, Rev. J. A. W. , 607
Collins, Mortimer and Frances, 167
Collins, Wilkie, 268, 574
Comber, Mr., Curate at Morwenstow,
630, 633
•, letter to, 634
Combermere, Lord, 334
Comet of 1857, 293, 296
, of 1861, 342, 378
, Hawker's poem on, 277, 343
Commercialism, 653
Compensation, 523
Compromise, age of, 216
Confectioner's shop. Hawker serves
behind the counter, 605
Confirmation, 393
Consistency, 220, 622
Coombe Bridge built, 76
Coombe Cottage, 21, 22, 491^
Cope. See Vestments
Corney, Bolton, 435
' Cornish Ballads,' 57a, 580
, binding of new edition, 206
, Hawker's prophecy re, 384
, Longfellow's opinion of, 615
INDEX
673
' Cornish Mother's Wail,' poem, 268
Coroners' inquests, 291-2, 331, 398,
583
Correggio, 330
" Count o'er the joys," etc., 401
Country life, love of, 556
County Court, 354-5
Courtney, W. P., xii.
Cousins, the Engraver, 435
Coutts, Francis, 658-9
Cowie, Dean, 342, 369/; 594, 598
, his son, 419
, " Rev. Pelagius Cowie," 454
Cowie, Miss, 594
Crime in England, 282, 293
, famous criminals, 301
Crimean War, 253, 280-1, 485
Critic, The, 245
Crocker, Dr., of Bristol, 547
Crofton, C. F., author of ' Bencoolen
to Capricorno,' 397
Cromwell, 482
' Croon on HennaclifT, 397, 590
Cross, The, 201
, blown up, 214, 215
, Cornish Crosses, 203
, Hawker's use of, no
, in Morwenstow Churchyard,
216
, sign of, 202
Crowe, Mrs, 320
'Cruel Coppinger,' 547, 551
Crying the Neck, 112
Cup, silver, presented to Col. I'Ans,
13
Curate weds a mother of 13, 494
Cyclone, 335. See also Storms
Daily Telegmph, 'young lions,' 580
'Daniel Gumb,' 518, 536
Dante, 239
" Dantesque mind. A," 644
Darwin, 480-1
Davis, Parson, of Kilkhampton, 202
Days of Creation, 386
De Foe, 434
De La Rue, Messrs., make Hawker's
notepaper, 87-8
Dean Lodge, Morwenstow, 633
Death, Hawker's descriptions of, 219,
305, 351, 437; sudden death, 447;
" \^'htre shall I die? " 323
2 U
Demons, 212, 244, 336, 384, 532
, barn wrecked by, 537-8-9
, the cock a demon-bird, 381
, England in the power of, 547
, Hawker attacked by, 440, 564
, Indian Mutiny and, 298-9
, printers', 452
-, riches and weather, 442
Denison, on the Real Presence, 237
Derby, Lord, 216, 219, 317
-, his * Homer,' 515
Devil's autograph, 376, 381, 391
Devil's Door in Welcombe Church,
206
Dickens, Charles, 24, 26, 28, 249, 253
, does pay, 252
-, on wrecked sailors, 359
'Dictionary of National Biography,'
xii.
Dinham, Dr John, 190, 290
Diocesan Synods, 172
Disraeli, Benjamin, 96-7, 219
, epigram on, 623
, speech by, 577
Dissent, 240. See also Wesleyanism
Dissenters, ii^Sff, 234
, burials in churchyards, 150,
377
380
-, a Dissenter found in a hogstye.
Hawker's friendly relations
with, i54jf, 425
, his prejudices against, 397
, respect for Hawker's memory,
xiv,
-, shooting, 218
Dobson, Austin, letter to, $<)o^
Dogs, 349, 353, 430, 436, 439
, in church, 108
, left on a wreck, 464-5-6
Dominicans, The, 236
' Don Juan,' 193
' Down with the Church,' poem, 35
Doyle, Sir Francis, 33
Drake, Miss, 421
Drayton, ' Polyolbion,' 378
'Dream of Gerontius,' 545
Dress, Hawker's eccentricities of,
83-86, 187, 503-4, 506, 607
Drewitt, Stephen, i
Dryden, 370, 557
Dublin Re-vieiv, 388, 449, 45 I
674
INDEX
Dundagel, 167, 196. See also
Tintagel
Dupath (or Dewpath) Well, 264
Dustyfoot, a dog, 565
Eastern Church. See Greek Church
Eastway, Manor of, 51, 601
' Ecce Homo,' 546, 568
'Ecclesia,' 249, 251, 268
£ccUsiasiic, The, 252
'Echoes from Old Cornwall,' 249, 250
252, 263, 268
Edrupp, Mr, visit of, 524
Education, Hawker on, 344
Edward VII. See Prince of Wales
Edwardes, Hon. and Rev. T., 601
Efford Manor, 14
Egypt, Hawker's interest in, 419
Eldad Chapel, 2
Election, Doctrine of, 295
Ellacombe, Rev. T. H., 77
Ellenborough, Lord, 478
Eloquence, Hawker's definition of,
539
' Elsie Venner,' 354
Emigration of parishioners, 401
Emmerich, Sister, 413, 440
Endowment of Morwenstow, 168
England, Hawker's denunciations of,
240, 242-3, 281, 300, 302-3, 372,
387, 441-2, 524, 535, 653
Mnglish Churchman^ The, 1 74, 477
Enoch, prophecy of, 297
Ephphatha, 228
Ephrem Syrus, 375, 519
Epigrams, Hawker's, 94 ff', 515, 622,
625
Epistles, The, origin of, 322
Epitaphs, by Hawker, \if\ff.
, on M. Fortescue, 230, 285-6
Eschatology, Hawker's ideas on, 293,
296-7. 535
Esplin, J. S., 161
'Essays and Reviews,' 19, 376, 385-6,
388,582
Eucharist, The, 141
Eusebius, 329
Evangelicals, 186
Evangelists, The, 322
Evil Eye, 489. See also Superstition,
Witchcraft, Ill-wishing
Evolution, Hawker on, 122
Excalibur, 191
Exeter College, Oxford, 455
Exeter, religious riot at, 215
Exhibition, The (1862), Hawker de-
nounces, 359, 390, 448, 653
Exmouth, Lord, lunches with Hawker,
504
Exorcism, 212, 227
' Eyes that Melt, The,' 494
Falcon Hotel, Bude, 189, 339, 380,606
Family ties, Hawker on, 339
Fanes, the, of Clovelly Court, 423
Farming, Hawker's interest in, 109,
49i> 5^5' 542. See also Animals,
Horses, Harvest, Labour Questions
Feast of Tents, The, 256-7
Featherstone, the wrecker, 51, 231
Fenians, 560-1
•, Celtic derivation, 564-5
' Field of Rephidim, The,' sermon, 183
Field, Vicar of Madingley, 394
Fields, Mrs J. T., 658
Filleigh Estate, The, 231
Fire at the Vicarage, i/ii^ff, 434
Fish Seal, Hawker's, 91
Fishing Villages, Cornish, and Dis-
sent, 516
Flexbury, Poughill, 335
Flowers, use of in Church, 185
'Follow Me,' Mrs Hawker's book,
252
Font, Morwenstow, 241
'Fools build houses,' etc., 82
' Footprints of Former Men in Far
Cornwall,' viii., 52-3,99, 612
, binding of new edition, 206
, first publication of, 586
, Oxford reminiscences in, 20
■, " sluggish sale" of, 589
Forraburry Church, 262
Fortescue, Matthew, 230, 285
Fortune's Travels in China, 224
Found, Sally; the Morwenstow witch,
67, 6oi
" Fragments of a broken mind," viii.,
327. 370, 381
Franco-Prussian War, Hawker's view
of, 592^_
Frankenstein, 203
Franklin, Lady, at Morwenstow, 576
Frasers Magazine, 2^^, 579-80
INDEX
675
Freewill, Hawker on, 367
" French of Stratford-at-Bow," 240,
567
Frere, Judge, 205
Frontispiece, history of, 423
Froude, J. A., 521
, letters from, 579-80
Galahad, Sir, lucky speculation of,
449
Galileo, Hawker backs, 378
Gambling, Hawker denounces, 285,
Ganglions, 528
Gargoyles, 258
Garibaldi, 474, 476, 560-1
, Hawker's epigram on, Q7
, Hawker recites his epigram,
482
* Ganger's Pocket, The,' 252
Gennesaret, the ripple on, 521
Genoa, holy cup at, 413
Gentleman's Magazine, The, 24, 385, 553
George II. guinea, 562
George III., Dr Hawker preaches
before, 3
George IV, 478
George, Elias, 7
Ghost, Hawker dressed up as a, 21
Ghost story, 158
Gibson, Milner, 478
Gilbert, Davies, 23-4
Gilpin, John, Hawker compares him-
self to, 365
Gladstone, W. E. , 227, 230, 325, 527,
541, 577
, Church Rate Bill, 542
, epigram on, 97
, Hawker hears him speak, 610
, incomes of clergy, 535
, letter to Mrs Hawker, 650-1
, oratory of, 532, 540
, Pusey's influence on, 518
Glastonbury, 412, 416
Gleaning, 109
Glebe farm, 283. See also Farming
Gliiidalough, the seven churches of,
575
God, nature of, 526
Godwin, J. G., 355, 364, 476, 484,
587, 611
, edits Hawker's Poems, 650
Godwin, J. G., last letter to, 633
, librarian to the Marquis of
Bute, 576
, on Hawker's secession, 647
-, on ' The Quest of the San-
graal," 411
-, visits Morwenstow, 422, 628
'Golden Treasury,' 384
Goldsmith, Oliver, 449
Goode, Mr., coroner, 292
Goodfellow, Dr., 609, 627
Gooseham, 529
Gorham, the Rev. G. C., visits Mor-
wenstow, 204
Gorham Judgment, The, 204, 209,512
Gospels, the origin of, 321
Gossett, Mr, of Bideford, 461^, 466
Graham, Sir James, 176
Grant, Dr Thomas, R. C. Bishop of
Southwark, 379, 442, 443
Granville, the Rev. Preb. Roger,
30, 305, 346, 578
•, ' History of the Granville
Family,' 579
Granville, Sir Bevill, 52, 269, 286, 333
, ghost of, 618
, coffin in Kilkhampton vault,
333
Grave, Hawker's, chosen at Morwen-
stow, 632
•, in Plymeuth Cemetery, 639
Gray, Bishop, 512
Great Eastern, The, Steamship, 3 1 8,
345-6
Greek Church, 85, 185, 620
Gregory, St. (Major), 419, 428
Grenvile, Sir Richard, 52
Gretser's ' Book of the Holy Cross,'
Hawker's translation, 201, i\\ ff,
233. 376, 536
Grey, Sir G., 211
•■ Grotesque in Architecture, The,' 257
Guardian, The, Hawker's letter to, 209,
214, 215, 216
' Guinevere,' Hawker's favourite lines
in, 195, 196
Guizot, 192
Gulf Stream, 562
Hackman, Mr., 560
Hall, Sir Benjamin, 287
676
INDEX
Hallam, mentioned by Tennyson to
Hawker, 192
Hals's ' Parochial History of Cornwall,'
51. 384
Hampstead, Hawker stays at, 609
Handwriting, Hawker's, 88-9, 633
Hangman, polite, 216
Harold's Cross, near Dublin, 230, 286
Harper, Rev. T. N., 183
Harrington, Chancellor, 344
Harris, Captain of the Primrose, 222
HarriSj Christopher, of Hayne, x., 418
, letter to, 576
, on Hawker's first marriage, 16
Harris, Miss, of Hayne, 268
Harris, W. G., x., 116, 155
Harrowby, The Earl of, at Morwen-
stow, 316-7, 373
Hartland, 54
Hartland Quay, 460
Harvest, 309, 362-3, 392
Harvest customs, 112
Harvest Festivals, Hawker originates,
171
Haslam, Rev. W., 185
Hat blows away, 503-4
Hawes, Sir Benjamin, 546
Hawker, Claud, zo%ff, 632-3
Hawker, first Mrs R. S., 15-16, 282
328, 338, 472, 493
, at Oxford, 20
, books by, 252
, death, \oz,ff
. character, 406-7
, dislike of photographs, 483-4
, eyesight failing, 143, 271,294,
309
, grave of, 404
, ' her inestimable worth,' 218
, personal appearance, 484
Hawker, Rev. Jacob Stephen (father
of R. S. Hawker), i
, takes orders, 3
, Vicar of Stratton, 38
, death, 447
Hawker, Rev. John, of Stoke, 2
Hawker, Rev. Robert, D.D. (grand-
father of R. S. Hawker), i, 295
320, 511
, Hymn, ' Lord Dismiss us,' 6
, ' Morning and Evening Por-
tion,' 552
Hawker, Dr., preaches before George
III-, 3
Hawker, R. S., character, wiff, 4*7,
456, 648, 651
. charity, 117
, dress and eccentricities, 83^
, excitability, 114, 328, 524, 606
, extravagance, 628
, constitution, 522
, deathbed scene, 637
, funeral, 638
, generosity, 113
, heart disease, 634
, hospitality, 93, 391
, humour, 654
, last illness, 635 jf
, nervousness, 358
, opium habit, 102, 643
, personal appearance, 83, 426,
530, 592, 617
, place in literature, d^iff
, secession to Rome, 636^
Hawker, second Mrs R. S., 507, 521,
522
character, 528
, illness, 603, 614
, death, 639
, letter to Atkenceum, ix.
, part in Hawker's secession,
636J?, 641, 643, 644
, Polish blood, 588
-, See also Kuczynski, Miss
Hawker, Tom, 210
Hawker, W. S,, 190
Hawker family, history of, 558
Heaphy, Thomas, 377
Heber, Bishop, 33
Hemans (? Mrs.), 240
Hennaclifr(or Raven's Crag), 45, 166,
195, 230, 244, 439, 459-60, 525,
533
Henry VIII., 198, 379
Henwood, Mr., 309
Heraldry, leopard in, 437
" Herba Imp'ta Gorhamensisy" 205
Herbert, George, 593
Herbert, Sidney, 285
Herbs, 524, 526
Herodotus, 378
Herrick, Robert, 80
pet pig, 35
Herschel, Sir William, 319
INDEX
677
Hey's Lectures on the xxxix. Articles,
122, 385-6
High Church Party, 199. See also
Tractarian Movement
Hindus, conversion of, 367
Hoaxing, <,ff, 99
Hockin, Canon of Phillack, 644
Hodson, Mrs Mary G., 4, 10
'Holacombe,' 208. See also Welcombe
Holinshed, 265
, etymology of Bude, 396
Holland, Philemon, 378
Holmes, Oliver Wendell, 354
Holnicote, 389
Holsw^orthy, 361
' Holy Grail.' See Tennyson
Homer, Tennyson quotes, 190
Honolulu, 353
Hook, Theodore, Hawker emulates, 5
Hopper, Farmer, 452
Horses, Hawker's, 246, 554
names of, 107-8, 306
"Horsewhipped the Dissenters," 155
"Horsewhipping Mr P.," 427
House of Commons, The. Hawker at,
609-10
'House that Jack Built, The,' 393
Household Words, 26, 249, 252. See
also Appendix II.
Hovillers, 396
Howard, George. See Carlisle, Earl of
Howe, Lord, 254
Hunt, Robert, 266
Hurton, author of ' From Leith to
Lapland,' 249
Hut, the, in the cliffs, 165, 430, 435,
459 ; a flirtation in, 444-5
Huxley, Professor, on controversy,
642
Hyde Park Riots (1866), 432
Hymns, Hawker on, 344-5
I'ans, Col. Wrey, 12
, his daughters, 14
, death, 14
I'ans, Miss Charlotte, 15
' Ichahod,' 458
'idylls of the King,' 192, 194, 195
, type used for printing, 432
Ilminster, 193
Immaculate Conception, Papal Bull,
23s. ^38, 44^-3
Incarnation, The, 443
Income. See Living
Index Expurgatorius, 392
Indian Mutiny, z^iff
Infallibility of the Pope, Hawker
argues against, 643
Ink, Hawker's tastes in, 89
Inscription over Vicarage door, 80,
187
Insurances, 282, 534
Iphigeneia, 192
Irish Disestablishment, 570
Irish Famine, Hawker's sermon on,
Jack Cade, 261-2
Jackson, Bishop (of London), at Mor-
wenstow, 593
Jackson, Mr. and Mrs., 506
Jacobson, Mrs., 437
Jacobson, W., Bishop of Chester, 17,
32, 429
, made Bishop of Chester, 523
, mediocrity of opinion, 18
, meets Hawker at Oxford, 506
Jacobson, W., Solicitor, 10
Jacobstow, 375
James I,, anecdote of, 510
James, J. Somers, junior, 548
James, J. Somers, senior, 9, 457, 547
, death of, 595
■, letters to, i, $oSff
Jerome, St., 393, 513
Jersey Cows, 163
Jettatura, a, 498
Jeune, Francis, 17, 32
, Dean of Lincoln, 479
, High Street garb, 478
, letter from, 405
-, made Bishop of Peterborough,
478
-, Master of Pembroke, 18
Jeune, Sir Francis, 32, 34
Jeune Joseph, wreck, 566-7
Jewett, Miss Sarah Orne, 658
Jewish Prayer Book, 428
Job, Book of, 381, 419, 423
, Hawker (luotcs, 401
Job and the waiter, 504
Job, sermon on, 537
John Bull, X., 477
, C. Harris's article in, 16
678
INDEX
John Bull, prayers published in, 596-7
'John Inglesant,' 618
Johnson, Dr., 268, 557
Johnson, President (of U.S.A.), 520
Joseph of Arimathea, 412, 416-7
Josephus, 297
Judas, greater sneaks than, 375
Kay, Sir, 455
Keble, John, 173, 236
Kelly, Arthur, 17, 33, 286, 420
Kelly, Mrs., 528
Kempe, Rev. Preb. , 607
Ken, Bishop, 593
Kennaway, Sir John, 271
Kennaways, the, 268
Kennedy, the traveller, 218
Kensington, Lord, 602
Kilkhampton, 21
Church, 53
, concert at, 269
King Arthur, 192, 410, 416, 428
, favourite oath, 434 ; Hawker
compares himself to, 433
King Edward VII. See Prince of
Wales
King Edward's School, Birmingham,
478
King, Dr., 290
King, R. J., 194, 418, 587
, letter from, 451
Kingdon, Mrs., Hawker's sister, 402
Kingdon, Rev. W. , 20
Kingsley, C, 49
controversy with Newman, 475
Hawker on, 245
letter to Capern, 244
not an orator, 539
on prayer, 523
Kinsman, J., saved by a raven, 64
Kinsman, Mr., parish mason, 424
Kirkland, Mr., 376
Koh-i-noor, 390
Kuczynski, Miss, 443jfi 496,^
family history of, 506-7
Hawker describes, 476, 500
Hawker's letter to, 498
letters, re Hawker, 444-5
re Hawker's age, 48 8 _/^
returns to Loncion, 481
" the nursery governess.
493
Kuczynski, Miss, "the young person,"
448
, verses to, 490, 492, 497
•, See also Hawker, second Mrs.
Kuczynski, Vincent, 529
Labour Questions, 174 401, 493
■, conditions of farm labourers
(1825), 71
'Lady's Well, The,' 238
Laffer, Rev. A., 6
Lammas, derivation, 362
Lamp, The, 239
' Lancelot and Elaine,' 196
Lancelot, Sir, 411, 415, 441
Landor, W. S., libel action, 311
■, on Edward Capern, 244-5
Laneast, 343
Lane, John, xiv., 195,
-, reminiscences of Capern, 244
Lang, Tom, 113, 601
Latakia, 517
Latimer, John, article on Trelawny
Ballad, 29
Launceston, 183, 214
-, Hawker preaches at, 544
Lavater, physiognomist, 348, 392
Lavers & Westlake, Messrs., 658
Law, Dr., Bishop of Bath and Wells, 34
Lawsuit, 16% ff.
" Lebjinckski," Miss, 443
Le Dain, Edward, i<,^ff, 163
Lee, Dr. F. G., viii., xi., 172, 518,
586, Sioff.
, book on validity of Ordina-
tions, 612
, elegy on Hawker, 645-6
, his Newdigate, 231
, letter to John Bull, 646
-, letter to Mrs. Hawker on her
husband's death, 645
-, meets Hawker, 611
' Legend of the Hive,' 252
Legend of Holy Bread, 253
Leigh, Major Egerton, ^']lff, 273
Leighton, Archbishop, 227
West's Life of, 558
Leland's Collectanea, 265
Lent, derivation of, 336
L'Estrange, Mr., 484, 517, 519
Letters, use of Hawker's, xii., 194
Levant monasteries, 226
INDEX
679
Leverrier, the astronomer, 343
Leviathan, 318
Lewis, Sir G. , 377
Liddell, Dean, 390
, at Morwenstow, 325
' Light of Other Days," 252
Lilbourne, John, Trial of, 31
Lincoln, President, 520
, assassination, ^idff
Liskeard Grammar School, Hawker
at, 6
Literary work, 249 jf, 509/"
, disappointments, 555, 590-1
, frittered away in " little
books," 573
, See also Bibliography, Appen-
dix II.
Literature, Cockney style, 559
Living, value of, 533-4
Llandaff, Bishop of, at Morwenstow,
621
' Locksley Hall,' 191
Londdn, Hawker goes to, for first time
(1864), 503
, second visit, 60% ff
London clergy, (>ilff
, " an inferior lot," 616
Longevity, 525
Longfellow, 354, 382, 418
.Hawker sends'Cornish Ballads'
to, 614
, letter to Hawker. 615
-, letter to Mrs. Hawker, 650
Lonsdale, Bishop, 393
Lonsdale, Lord, 234
' Lord Dismiss us,' hymn, 6
Lord's Prayer, 321
' Lost President,' poem, 489
Lovell Lovell, 421
Lowe, the politician, 541
' L. S.D.,' 242
Lunuy Island, 45, 288, 446
Lyell, Sir C., 480-1
Lyra, commentator, 429
Lysons, 265
Lytton, Bulwer, 541
M.A. degree, Hawker takes, 18
Macaulay, Lord, 23
, death of, 320
, on Trelawny Ballad, 25
Macaulay, Lord, suggests Sangrail to
Tennyson, 415
writes to Hawker, 26
' Macbeth,' 193, 568
Macbride, Dr., 314, 568
, death, 565
MacCabe, Editor of
graph, 240
Macdonald, David, 162
Macdonald, George, 564
-, novel by, 576
IVeeily Tele-
Macleane, Douglas, 20
Macmillan, Messrs., 268
Magdala, capture of, 570
Magdalen Hall, Oxford, 17, 509, 565,
568
' Magna Britannia,' 265
Mahometanism, 367
Malory, Sir T., 414, 415
Manchester, Duke of, 214
'Manger of the Holy Night,' 252
Manning bed, the, 81
Manning, Cardinal, letters from, 626,
629
Mansfield, Canon, 636-7
MS. books. See Note-books
Margaret, wreck, 230
Margaret Quayle, wreck, 459
• — , lawsuit re, /^SS-"]
' Marmion,' 270, 523
Marriage, first, 15. See also Hawker,
first Mrs. ; Pans, Charlotte
Marriage, second, 490, 495, 497i?"
, at Paddington, 505
, opposition to, 501. See also
Kuczynski, Miss ; and Hawker,
second Mrs.
Marriott, Charles, (Tractarian), 19
Marshall, Mrs., 602
Marsland House, 50
, haunted, 618
Marsland Valley, 206
Martin, Bill, 57
Martin, Chancellor, suicide of, 326
Martyn, Mrs. Waddon, 47, 134, 658
Martyn, Rev. W. Waddon, 229, 580
' Martyrs of Vienne and Lyons,' 231
Mary, the name, 311
Maskell, William, x., 204, 258, 272,
378
, arrangements for martyr<lom
"f, 594
68o
INDEX
Maskell, William, the Castle, Bude, 489
, criticism of Hawker's 'Quest,'
429
, on Hawker's correspondence,
vii.
, on Hawker's first marriage,
15
, on Hawker's secession, 648-9
, letter to, 610
, pamphlet on Hawker, xi.
Masters, J., publisher, 250, 252
M'Neile, speech of, 214, 216
Medal worn by Hawker, 239
Mediator, Christ the, 560, 596-7
Mediocrity, Hawker on, 421
Memory, loss of, 283, 487
Merlin, 446
Mermaid, Hawker masquerades as, 7
Mermaids, 69, 167
, in architecture, 266
Methodism. See Dissent and Wesley-
anism.
Mevagissey, 516
Meynell, Charles, 422, 451, 454
Michael Angelo, 233
• , the bar of, 341
Michel, W. Francisque, 390, 435
Michel & Co., of Truro, 222
' Midwatch, The,' song, 253
Mill, J. S., 541
Mills, Mrs., 480
Millman, Dean, his sons visit Hawker,
93
Milton, Hawker's allusions to, 194,
23^> ^39) 34*, 356, 428, 457
Milton Damerel with Cookbury, 203
' Modryb Marya,' 625. See also
' Aunt Mary.'
Mohammedanism, 367
Molesworth, Sir Paul, 600
Molesworth, Sir W., 27, 250-1
Money troubles. Hawker's, 187, 282
J, 502, 557-8, 587, 598, 614
, income, 533-4
Monica, St,, prayer of, 639
' Monumental Morwenstow,' 446
Moody and Sankey, 630
Moore, Tom, 268, 564-5
•< More Worlds than One,' (Brewster's)
373
Morrell, Dr., 518
Morris, J., author of ' Nature,' 375
Morrison, ' the atheist draper,' 565
Morwenna, Lord Clinton's daughter
named, 289
Morwenna, St., 41, 599
day of, 588
Morivenna, The, ship, 223
Morwenstow, Hawker's description
of, 42-3
, Hawker offered living of, 39
, his attachment to, 479
, his work at, 401
, view from, 44
•, Hawker's article on, 521 ^,
553
Morwenstow Church, description of
interior, 46
' ' Moses," effigy of, 21
Moses' Rod, 310
Motto, tbe Hawker, 577
Moulton, Mrs. Louise Chandler,
658
Mountjoy, R. A., 47, 478, 496, 590
, letters to, 531 ff
Mozley, of Derby, publisher, 252, 381
Mozley, Times critic, at Morwenstow,
440. Bampton lecturer, 476
Mudie's Library, 475
Munster Square, church in, 613
Mural painting in Morwenstow
Church, 46
Murillo, 330
' Musa Verticordia,' 658
Music, Hawker's poems set to, 268,
270
Music in Church, 144. See also
Services
Mutilation, in Indian Mutiny, 304
Nairn, 574
Names, local, 47
, significance of, 318
Nana Sahib, 301
Nancy, wreck, 625
Nanny Cornish, 549
Napoleon I., 298, 528, 546
Napoleon III., 281, 325, 474
Nares' Glossary, 420
Neate, Chas., M.P., 478, 496
' Nectan,' pseudonym, 277
Nectan, St., 206, 316
Nectan's Kieve, St., 261
Neill, General, 303
INDEX
68 1
Nelson, death of, picture, 241
Neptune, planet, 343
New York, 516-7
Newdigate, Hawker on Dr. Lee's, 233
, Hawker wins, 33
, ' Pompeii ' omitted from list,
SSI
-, 'The Vikings,' 378
Newgate Calendar, 302
Newman, Cardinal, 19, 184, 545
, controversy with Kingsley,
47S
, letter from, 627
, on Hawker's secession, 647
Newton, Sir Isaac, 373, 507
Newton, T. Duncan, 5
Nicephorus, 257, 330
' Night Side of Nature,' by Mrs.
Crowe, 320
Nightingale, Florence, 287
" No Popery," 219
Noah, " Cover Noah," 584
Noble, J. Ashcroft, essay on Hawker,
10
North Devon Gazette, 244
North, ill-omened, 423
North side of Church, 207
North Tamerton, Hawker Curate of,
34
Northam, 319
Northcote, Sir Stafford, 170, 288, 324,
Northey, Mr., 347
Noses, repugnant, 391-3
Note-books, Hawker's, viii., 125 ff,
y-1, 37o» 378, 652
Notes and Queries, 167, 2l6, 227, 250 ff,
2S9#. 277. 389, 430, S64. 573
Novels, Hawker reads, to his wife, 302
" Numyne," 254^^"
O'CONNKLL, 312
, on consistency, 220
OlTertory, The, 174/; 178 #, 181 jf,
281
' Old MynshuU of Erdeswick,' 271,
274/"
Olde, John, 636
Omnipotence, 367
Once a Week, 419, ^^1 ff, $$0
O'Neil, sermon at Liverpool, 352
Onesimus, 516, 540
Opium habit, 102, 643
Ordination, Hawker's, 34
' Oriental Budget,' 277
Origen, 513, 591
Oscott, 422, 451
Oswald, Father, 383
Oxford, 378, 382
, architecture of, 385
. dangers of, 18
, escapades at, 20
, Hawker at, 12
, Hawker's love of, 559
, Hawker returns to, 17
, honeymoon at, 505
, " nothing can save," 514
, " Panorama," 531
, reminiscences, 375-6jf, 478
, Wesleyan Conventicle at, 557
, wish to live at, 519, 547, 565
Paddington, G. W. R. Hotel, Hawker
at, 504
-, Holy Trinity Church, Hawker
married at, 505
-, St. Mary Magdalen, 609
Padstow, 532-3
Palmerston, Lord, 298-9, 345, 443,
448
, feud with Bishop Phillpotts,
527
Parker, James (publisher), 364, 484,
572. S87
Parker, Matthew, 610
'Parley of Beasts,' Howell's, 252
Parliament, Opening of, Hawker at,
609-10
' Parnell, Cherry,' 69, 71
Parochial disputes, 152
' Pauline,' Ballad, 506
Pauper funeral, a, 337
Payne, Antony, 53
Pearse, Rev. Mark Guy, 155
Pedlar, a mysterious, 621
Peel, Sir Robert, 176
Pembroke College, Oxford, 203
, Hawker matriculates at, 12
, Hawker's letters in Library,
, ' History of,' 20
, trio of dons, 17
Pen Carrow, 25 i
Pension, granted to Mrs. Hawker, 650
682
INDEX
Penstowe, Hawker's visit to, 474
Pentire, Tristram, 63
Percy Society, 28
Peto, Sir M., 377
Pets, sanctioned ijy Christ, 349
Phiiiemon, Epistle to, 516
' Philemon of Colossae,' 536
Philistines, 449
Phillips, C. M., letter to, 181
Phillpotts, Archdeacon W., 480-1,
542, 606
Phillpotts, Bishop, 39, 40, 339,
437
, burnt in effigy, 215
, letters from, 177, 438-9
, Lord Palmerston's dislike of,
526
, Maskell expected would
secede, 649
Phillpotts, Mrs, 140
, death, 437
Phipps, Sir C, 457
Pkcenix, wreck, 164
Photographs of Hawker, 588
, Dr. Budd's, 480, 482-3
, taken at Plymouth, 635
Phrenology, 415
Physiognomy, science of, 341
Piano, Mrs. Hawker's, zi^ff, 269
Pig, Hawker's pet, 35
Pipes, Hawker's, 511, 568
Piscina, in Morwenstow Church, 242
Pitt, Stanhope's Life of, 338
Pius IV., Pope, 365
Pius IX., Pope, 208/; 230, 235,
238
Pixies, loo-i
Plagiarism, Hawker on, 34, 261 ff,
273, 420, 456-7, 519, 521, 573-4
, 'Sir Beville ' plagiarised, 271
Planets, The, 374
Pliny, 378
' Plutarch,' North's, 381
Plymouth, Hawker born at, i
, boyish pranks at, 5
, Hawker in solicitor's office at,
10
, last days and death at, 633
, Roman Catholic Cathedral,
636
Plymouth Brethren, 295
' Poems and Pictures,' 259
'Poems of Places,' Longfellow's col-
lection, 615
Poems, unpublished, by Hawker, 128,
135-6, 147
Poet of Cornwall, The, Hawker toasted
as, 375
Poetry, Hawker's, 652 ; criticism of,
411, 416-7, 572
■, Hawker on his own, 384,
418-9
-, " meat " in, 439
"Poets and their Bibliographies," 192
Politics, Hawker on, 219, 312, 531-2,
542
, "low ambition," 577
, " no interest in," 555
, tactics of statesmen, 540-1
Pollard, J., printer, 428, 432
Polycrates, King of Samos, 506
' Pompeii,' Hawker's prize poem, 33,
39> 339> 362
Poncho, 313
Poor Law, Hawker on, 173, 281, 310-
II, 374-5, 495
•, " Lock Him up," 575
' Poor Man and his Parish Church,'
173
' Poor Man's Morning and Evening
Petition,' 3
'Popular Romances of the West of
England,' Hunt's, 266
Port Isaac, 516
Possession by devils, 212. See also
Demons
Postal arrangements of Morwenstow,
233, 241, 247, 304-5
Potato thief story, 36
Poughill, 382
, church bells, 356-7
, pinnacle blown off the tower.
335
Powderham Castle, 603
Prae-Raphaelitism, 226, 257, 330
Prayer, Hawker's use of, 203, 523
for the dead, 595
' Prayer, Book of Common.' 179, 334
Prayers, composed by Hawker, 169
■ , family, 605
, for Prince of Wales, 596
, Hawker's Latin prayer to
Virgin Mary, 529
, in time of war, 300
INDEX
683
Praying for rain, anecdote, 58
Preaching, Hawker's, 129, 186
, readiness of resource, 133. See
also Sermons.
Preferment, reason of not getting, 537
Prevost, Sir George, 211
Primrose, wreck, zii ff ; presentation
mahogany case, 223
Prince Consort, death of, 350-1 j/", 383,
, holds tenets of Swedenborg,
388
Prince of Wales (King Edward VII.),
325.
, at Cambridge, 394
, dedication of book to, 264, 267
, Hawker's prayers for, 595-7
, subscribes to restoration of
Morwenstow Church, 600
Pro-Cathedral, The, Hawker at, 610
Propagation of the Gospel, Society
for, 304, 486
Prophecies of the end of the world,
296-7
, re English in India, 299
Protection, Hawker on, 224
Protectionists, 219
Protestantism, 213, 388
, definition of, 210
, a Pic-Nic, 519.
See
also
523. 542,
Church of England
Proverbs and sayings, 323
, Chinese, 421
, East wind, 327
, Easfer, 577
, first lamb, 357
, "Fools build houses," etc.,
82
, relations, 312
, Scottish, 289
, Spanish, 218
Prynne, Dr., 549
' Psalmiis Cantici,' 629
Pseudonyms, 277
Psyciiology, 528
Public Worship Regulation Act, 97,
614, 616
Publishers, Hawker's dealings with,
381, 449, 4X4, 557, 574, 5^^8-9^
, " poithumoiis publisher," 269
Pulpit, in Morwenstow Church, 156,
604
Punch, 471
Punch, on Lord John Russell, 532
Pusey, Dr., 19, 494
, his Sermons, 121
, " woolly mind," 518
Puseyism, 214
, in Hawker's poetry, 384
Quarterly Revieiv, 41 8, 45 1
-, "that infamous article in," 568
Quayle, Mr., 466
Queen and Bishops, 214
Queen and the Church, 210
'Queen Guennivar's Round,' 590
Queen Victoria, 264, 353
, letter to, 453
, " Member for Windsor," 543
, "Mrs. Guelpli," 440
, on Garibaldi, 474
' Quest of the Sangraal.' See San-
graal
Quicksands, 435
Railways, 287-8
, Hawker on, 240
, first journey to London, 503-5
, second journey to l-ondon, 608
, third class best, 438
Rambler, 45 I
' Rambles beyond Railways,' 268
Raphael, 226, 330
Ratisbon, 201
Ravens, 532-3
Rawlins, Rev. J. A., 603 jf", 608
Reading, Hawker's, 297-8, 326, 378,
494. See also Books
Record, 552
' Records of the Western Shore,' 249,
268
Redding, Cyrus, 262
'Reeds Shaken with the Wind,' 249,
251, 268, 381
Reform Bill, 312, 536
Reform Club, Hawker calls at, 610
Reformation, The, 213, 387-8, 595,
See also Church of England and
Protestantism
Regions, doctrine of, 423
Relationship, 490-1
' Remembrances of a Cornish Vicar,'
5ioy/'
Renan, 476
' Resurges,' 655
684
INDEX
Resurrection, The, 535
, of the body, 347
♦ Resurrection morning,' 59
Revivals, 332
Revolver, Hawker's, 294
Rhabdomancy, 457
Rhone, The, 184
" Richardson, Mr.," the imaginary, 5
Riches, 545
' Ride from Bos to St. Nunn's,' 555
' Ride from Bude to Bos,' 32, 196, 549
Riding, instructions on, 548
Ridon, Brittany, 566-7
Ritualists, 614, 616
Roaring Dick, 331
Rob Roy, 421, 576
Robartes, Lord, 219, 220, 583
Robberies of church plate, 293-4
Robin, stag, 186
Rock, Dr., 389
Roof, Church, 278
Rooks, 104, 308, 377
Rolle, Hon. Mark, 288, 496
Roman Catholic Church, 84-5, 126,
128, 200, 208, 210-11, 247, 311,
335) 454) 553) 5^0, 610, 620, 622,
6\zff. See also Newman, Manning,
Wiseman, Grant, Ullathorne, Mey-
nell
, compared to Rhone, 183
, Hawker's reception into, 636 ;
Lee on Hawker's secession to, 646 ;
letters quoted by Maskell in
Athemsum, 647 ; Maskell's opinion,
648-9 ; Mr. Godwin's view, 647 ;
newspaper controversy, 642, 649
-, Hierachy re-established in
England, 199
, " obvious Ark," 623
, overtures from, 379, 442
, reference to offertory 182
, T. Arnold secedes to, 284
-, vestments, i'
' Rome as it was under Paganism and as
it became under the Popes,' 229, 252
Rosebery, the Earl of, 658
Rossall School, 418
Roughtor, 203
Rouse, Rev. E. A., 143
Rouse, Rev. O., 49
Rowe, W., Solicitor, 13, 559, 587, 595,
602
Rowland, Hugh, 461
Royal Cornivall Gazette, 164
Royal De-vonport Telegraph, 24
" R. S. H.," cipher initials, 265, 267
" Rural Synods," 172, 622
Ruskin, 255, 552, 653
Russell, G. W. E., 284
Russell, Lord John, 18, 527, 536
, caricature of, 532
Russo-Turkish War, 235
Sacrilege, 179
St. Aubyn, Mr., architect, 599
St. Barnabas, Pimlico, 613
St. Cuthbert, 521
St. Francis of Assisi, 102, 653
St. Heliers, 478
St James's Magaziue, 27 I
"St. John of the Spasms," 208
St. John's Well, 16% ff, 194
St. Levan Church, 519
St. Lucy, 227
St. Monica, 639
St. Paul, on slavery, 516, 540
with a teapot, 223
St. Paul's, Knightsbridge, 613
St. Paul's School, 419
St. Thomas, in India, 545
St. Thomas Aquinas. See Aquinas.
Salisbury, Hawker at, 504
Salomons, Alderman, 210
Sandon, Lord, 316
' Sangraal, The Quest of the,' 353,
394) A-T-°jff, 65i#)
, Daily Telegraph review, 580
, dedication, 413
, etymology, 414
-, Gas, Steam, and Electric
Telegraph, 446
-, Hawker unable to continue,
573
558
, line on Hawker's tomb, 639
, reviews, 450, 455-6
-, T. Westwood's poem, 564,
-, W. Francisque Michel on, 390
Satan's front door, 9
Saturday Re-oieiv, 449
Saul, King of Abyssinia compared to,
570
Savage, Miss, 625, 633, 636-7
INDEX
685
" Saxon swine," 558
Scarecrow, an ineffectual, 104
Schiller, Hawker's translation from, 34
School, parish, 360, 379, 594, 630
, building and naming, 77
, Hawker catechising at, 444
Sciatica, Hawker suffers from, 580-1
Science, Hawker's views on, 122, 481,
547. 653
, atomic theory, 122-3
Scott, Sir W. , 270, 389
, Hawker quotes, 433
, on Trelawny Ballad, 23, 25
Screen, in Morwenstow Church, 280
Scripture, Hawker learns by heart, 297
"Scrivener's pay," 559
Sea-symbolism, 263
Seals, Hawker's, 90-91
" Sediment, no," 594
Sellon Controversy, 199
Sepoys, 300, 303 _
Sermons, Hawker's, 436, 479
on Baptism, 618-9
Birds and Flowers, 431
ceiling falls during, 593
on death of Prince Consort,
350
485-6
614
dislike of shew sermons,
on Dissent, 154
farewell (1875), 632
' Field of Rephidim,' 183
" Fragments that remain," 323
five in a day, 598
image of Czsar, 304
on Job, 537-9
on Job and demons, 564
at Lambeth, 612, 616, 623
" Man sent from God," 608-9
politics in, 487
at St. Matthias, Brompton,
at Stratton, 562-3
visitation at Launceston, 543,
555
Servants, Hawker's treatment of, 114,
605
Services, Church, 143^,
, daily, 185 See also Baptism,
Burial, Eucharist, Music
Shakespeare, Hawker quotes, 302,
356, 408, 528, 541, 568
Sharks, seen at Morwenstow, 381-2
Sharp's Nose Head, 166
' She is far from the land,' model for
metre of ' Sir Beville,' 268
Shearm, Mr., 71, 149
Shearme, Ann Elinor, 657
Shearme, £.,71
Shearme, John, nth in succession, 47
Shelly, John, 643
Shelley, quoted, 410
Shelley, Mrs., 379
Shephard, family name, 47, 71
Shingle roof of Church, 150 ff, 288,
599. 600
Shipley, Rev. Orby, 388, 430, 520
" Shirt on fire," 454
Shorthouse, J. H., related to Hawkers
of Somerset, xiii.
Shunamite, The, 475
'Silent Tower of Bottreaux,' 262,
657
Simcoe, Mr., Rural Dean, 521
Simpkin & Marshall, 267
' Sir Bevill,' novel by A. C. Thynne, 52
' Sir Beville,' poem by Hawker, 268
zT. 270. 272-3
' Sir Ralph de Blancminster,' 547 jf"
' Sisters of Glen Nectan,' poem, 261
Slaughter, ethics of, 107
Slavery, Hawker advocates, 516, 540
"Slightly cracked," 444
Smith, Alexander, 454
Smith, Goldwin, 479
Smith, J. Russell (publisher), 564,
586-7
Smuggling, 61, 547
" Sneak in House of Commons," 219
SnutT-box, presented to Col. I'ans, 13
Society of Antiquaries, Hawker secre-
tary for Cornwall, 253-4, 519
Socinus, 321, 570
Socrates, 597
Solitude, Hawker on, 359, 439, 469,
500, 502, 574
Solomon, 401, 527
, seal of, 90, 297
Space and time, 374
Spain, Tennyson in, 192
Sparks, Mrs. Jared, 418
" Spasm of the Ganglions," 153, 387
" Spasmodic John, " 211
Speke's Mill Bay, 488
686
INDEX
Spence, "Sir J.," 474
Spender, Mr., at Morwenstow, 592
Spinning, (hand) at Welcombe, 525
Spirits, Hawker's belief in, 102, 335,
618-9 See also Demons and Angels.
Sponsors, i^sff
Spurgeon, 296, 346
, without mustard, 380, 382
Square, Dr., 565, 634, 637
Stag, pet, 186
Stamford Hill, near Stratton, battle of,
270
Stan bury. Bishop, first Provost of
Eton, 50
Stanbury Mouth, 398
Standard, The, article in, on Morwen-
stow,161
Stanley, Dean, 457, 476
Stanley, Lord, 312, 541
Stevens, Henry, 476, 507
, " stars and stripes," 609
Stevens, Mr., Solicitor, of Cardiff, 466
Stevens, Mrs. Henry, Hawker inter-
views, 503
, letter to, 499
Stoke-Damerel, Hawker baptized at, 2
Stokes, H. Sewell, 197, 589
, elegy on Hawker, 640-1
, view of Hawker's secession,
641
Stole. See Vestments,
Storms, great, 435, 437-8, 439, 532-3,
581
, cyclone in 1872, 600-1
, during service, 311
Stowe, 51, 269
Strathmore, Earl of, 325
Stratton, 3, 542
, Board of Guardians, 375
, feoffees of Blancminster
Charity, 547
, Hawker's pranks at, 6ff
, Hawker preaches at, 562-3
, Hundred of, 51
-, riot at, 214, 215
Stucley, Sir George and Lady, 475
' Summa Theologise,' 258. See also
Aquinas.
Sunday, observance of, 285
Sunset, mistaken for end of the world,
606
Superstition, Cornish, 66, 99, 313, 498
Surplice question, the, 173, 178
" Swabs," a game of, 73
Swansea, 462-3, 465
Swedenborg, 350, 394
, ' Arcana Celestia,' 388
' Sweet and Twenty,' novel by Mor-
timer Collins, 167
Swift, Dean, 487
" Sylvanus Urban," 553, 557
Symbolism, in architecture, 265, 521-2
Tagert, Rev, J., 658
Tait, Archbishop, 393
-, baptism doubtful, 586, 616,
620, 622
, epigram on, 98
Public Worship Bill, 613
Talmud, The, 297, 564
' Tamar Spring, The,' 40
Tape, George, accident to, 289
Tarratt, J., 631
Taunton, 480
Taylor, Bayard, author of 'Hannah
Thurston,' 445
Tchutgar, 301, 371
Tea, 224
price of, 87
Tea-totalism, Hawker on, 115
Teeth, 332, 485
Temperance, The, wreck, 307
Temple, Dr., Bishop of Exeter, 582^^,
646
, Hawker meets, 585
'Tendrils,' by Reuben, 10
Tennyson, Alfred, at Morwenstow,
, borrows a pipe, 193
Holy Grail,' and ' Quest,'
4i4#
, in Spain, 192
, letter to Capern, 244
, letter to Hawker, 196
, Life of, by his son, 189
-, Personal appearance of, 190
and 193
-, says farewell to Hawker at
Coombe, 21
, sends Hawker a book, 243
, success of, 356
Tennyson, Emily, 197, 434
Tennyson, Horatio, 394
Thackeray, death of, ifi'^ff
INDEX
687
" Thanes fly from me, the," 613
Theatres, Hawker on, 285
Thersites, 455
Thibet, 368
' Thomasine Bonaventure,' 551, 553
Thompson, Prof. Sylvanus, 195
Thorns, W. J., Editor of Notes and
Queries, 202, 277, 389
Thorn, S., photographer, 489, 588
Thornton, Rev. W. H , 606
" Throw her down," 235
Thynne, Rev. Canon A. C, 52, 269,
423, 428, 463, 477
, sermon by, 407
, ' Sir Bevill,' 52
Thynne, Lord John, 149, 211, 333,
371. 579
Time, Clock of Adam, 481
, Geologic and Mosaic, 386
, space and, 513, 514
Times, The, I74, 209, 277, 559
Tintagel, Hawker at, 203, 262, 472
, honeymoon at, 16, 412
• , Tennyson at, 194
Tithes, 281
Tobacco, 87, 517
Tobit's house, 399
Toller, Mr., Coroner, 291
Tonacombe Manor, 617
, description of, 47
, original of "Chapel" in
' Westward Ho I ' 49
Toni, translation from, 252
Tooley Street, 247
Toplady's Hymns, 383
Torquay, meeting at, 181
Torrejos, Spanish rebel, 192
Torrington, the Mayor of, 337
Tractarian movement, 19, 121, 185,
ri6
, leaders of, 19, 184
Trawlers, Clovelly, 467
Trebarrow, 34
Trelawny Ballad, 271
, history of, 23^^
, set to music, 268
Trelawny. Sir J., "an infidel," 577
Trelawny, Sir W. , Governor of
Jamaica (1772), 29
" Tre Pol and Pen," 274, 276
" Tremaine, Canon," 167
Trentham, Rev. J. B., 474
Trewin, Farmer, 73
Trigg Major, Deanery of, 172
Trinity, Second Person of, 560, 596,
597
Troyte, A. D., 280, 395
Truro, 222
Turkey, 235
TurnbuU, convert to Rome, 389
Turner, Lord Justice, at Morwenstow,
431
Turnips and sermon ashes, 132
Twining, Miss Louisa, 224, 241, 242
Twining, Richard, 90, 224, 241
Typography, 428, 430, 432
Ullathorne, Bishop, 443, 457
" Uncommercial Traveller," 511
Union Reviexu, Hawker writes critique
for, 525
Unions. See Poor Law
Urban IV., Pope, 342
Valentine, Eva, verses to, 481, 482,
497
Valentine, Johnny, 467^, 489,^, 492
Valentine, Rev. W., 435 jf, 443, 459^^,
472#
, buys Chapel, 507
, his horse, 496
, leaves Morwenstow, 502
■, preaches, 447
Vatican, 377
"Vera Effigies," 329, 377, 530
Vere, Aubrey de, 189
Vere de Vere, Lady Clara, 192
Veronica, Saint, 329,414
Vestments, 127, 134, 521
Vestry Book, old, 71
Vicarage, building of, 77
, interior of, 81
" Victim of Morwenstow," 603
Victoria. See Queen Victoria
' Views and Opinions,' 92
Villemarque, 414, 420
Virgil, 192
Virgin Mary, 236
" Vis insita," 382
Visions, 228
, dead wife's face, 407
Visitation Sermon, 183
Visitations, 375, 480, 481, 482
Voice, Hawker's, 332
688
INDEX
' Voice from the Place of Saint Mor-
wenna,' 199, 209
Waddon Lantern 49
Waes-hael, King Arthur's, 424, 434
, bowl, 450-1
Walford, editor of Once a Week, 550
' Walk to the Land's End,' 268
Walpole, H. Spencer, at Morwenstow,
431-2
Walter, John, Hawker's letter t^, 174,
209
Ward, Captain, 460
Ward, W. G., 19
Ward, Mrs. Humphry, 284
Warts, 482
Watch, with one hand, 207
Watson, Mrs, 278
, her landlady, 427
, legacy to Hawker's children,
279
583
-, unique correspondence with,
Watson, William, at Bideford, 245
, quoted, 317
'Week at Land's End,' 267
Weekly Register, 453, 474
Welcombe, 154, 209
, ceiling of Church falls, 593
, Church, 207
, derivation, 207
, description of, 206
, excitement about Fenians, 561
, foxhunters at, 452
, Hawker's article on. (See
also ' Holacombe '), 514
, Hawker becomes curate of,
202
, Hawker's fear of losing, 582^
, Hawker proud of, 475
• , Hawker riding to, 100, 311,
313, 321, 324, 538
, Revel, 316
, " simple old Welcombe," 526
, writing on Church wall, 371
Well of St. John, 16% ff
Wellesley family, 217
Wellington, Duke of, 95, 341, 528,
530, 546
Wesley, John, 56, 208, 228
, " change of sins," 462
, his nth sermon, 387
Wesley, John, influence on Cornish
character, 461
Wesleyanism, 153. See also Dissent
Wesleyans, 461 j
-, typhus among, 296
West, Rev. W., 227, 276, 370, 389,
558, 573
, his letter to Mrs. Hawker on
Hawker's death, 644
, letters to, iS"] ff
West, Temple, 361
West of England Conservative, 200
West Putford, 245
Westall, Curate of St. Matthias,
Brampton, 614
Western Antiquary, 27 1
Western Daily Mail, 199
Western Luminary , 1 64
Western Morning Neius, 62 1, 632
Westminster Abbey, Hawker visits,
609-10
' Westward Ho I ' Kingsley's, 49
Westwood, T. , 564, 573
Whale at Morw^enstow, 549
Wheat, 323
, divine origin of, in
Whewell, Dr., death, 536
White, "Weaker, 28, 268, 574
Whitstone, 12, 14, 20, 35
Whittaker's ' Cathedrals of Cornwall,'
265
Whitworth guns, 448
Whixley, Yorkshire, 435
Widemouth, 231
, visit to, 576
Wife-selling, 72
Wightwick, Mr., of Plymouth,
170
' Wilberforce, Life of,' 304
Wilberforce, Robert, 304
Wilberforce, Samuel, Bishop of Oxford,
138) 300, 304. 376, 486
death of, 620
Wilder, Mrs., 546
Will, the power of, 569
William IV., King, 76, 78
Williams, Edgar, portrait of Capern,
245
Williams, Rev. J., biographer of Dr.
Hawker, 3
Willis's Current Notes, 27, 34, 250 f, 254,
2S9#
INDEX
689
Wills, Editor of All the Year Roumd,
518/; 520, 522, 544
Window, Chancel, in Morwenstow
Church, 288
Window, Memorial, in Morwenstow
Church, 578, 657
Wisconsin, emigrant returns from, 347
Wiseman, Cardinal; 'A Few Flowers
from a Roman Campagna,' 430
, lectures at Ipswich, 569
, ' Lecture on Language,' 383
, letter to Hawker, 458
Witches, 67, 253
, White Witch, 325
Woodcock, October, 526
Wordsworth, Bishop C. , 371
Wordsworth, W. , Tennyson and
Hawker discuss, 191
Workhouses. See Poor Law.
World, The, 625
" Wragg is in custody," 524
Wrecker, death of a, 313
Wrecking, 63
Wrecks, 230, 288, 319, 501
Wrecks, A-vonmtre, 581
, Bencoolen, ^<)$ff
, at Bude, 1783 and 1790, 13
, Caledonia, Phcenix, Alanzo, 157jf"
, Eliza, 62
, Jeune Joseph, 566-7
, Margaret , 229
, Margaret Quayle, 459
, Nancy, 625
, Padstow vessel waterlogged,.
S33
-, Primrose, 221
-, Rochefort vessel, 240
-, St. Paul at Melita, 400
, Temperance, 307
Yule, Rev. J. C. D. , 241
Zachariah, Hawker quotes, 180
Zebra story, 9
Zoo, The, Hawker at, 610
Zouaves, the, 354
Zwinglius, heresy of, 214
THE LITERATURE OF MORWENSTOW
CORNISH BALLADS
AND OTHER POEMS
By R. S. hawker
Edited, with a Preface, by C. E. Byles. With numerous
Illustrations, including lithographs by J. Ley Pethybridge.
( Uniform with " Footpnnts of Former Men in Far Cornwall"
with a special binding designed from old oak carving in the
Churches of Morwenstow and Welcombe.) Crown 8vo., 5s. net.
Daily Telegraph. — "All reading people of the Weit Country — and, we
doubt not, many others — will welcome this collected edition of the poems of
the Rev, R. S. Hawker, uniform with the volume containing his prose
works. . . . Hawker's most ambitious poem is 'The Quest of the Sangraal.'
... It closes with a magnificently daring image."
Academy. — "The excellent popular edition of Stephen Hawker. . . .
essential to every lover of the Cornish poet. ... It is a poetic personality
which merits a wider repute than has yet been accorded it."
Literary World. — " This collection is in all respects superior to the volumes
issued in 1879 and 1899, for it contains no fewer than fourteen pieces not
hitherto published in the poet's collected works, as well as some capital
illustrations, among which those by Mr. Ley Pethybridge are deserving of
warm praise."
Speaker. — " Few personalities in recent literature are more fascinating than
the personality of Robert Stephen Hawker. . . . The poems are a genuine
utterance of the man. In some respects they will remind the reader strongly
of Wordsworth."
Globe. — " Unquestionably the most desirable of all editions of Hawker's
verse."
Morning Post. — " The book gives one the fullest possible opportunity of
judging of Hawker's merits as a poet, and it will probably cause most readers
to place him rather higher than they have hitherto done. The numerous
notes are of the highest interest."
Mr. T. P. O'Connor (in T. P.'s Weekly). — " His poetry stands by itself,
and I am very glad that it is now accessible in its entirety. ... In reading
Hawker's poems and tales you are wonderfully under the spell of that Corn-
wall in which man and Nature have long faced each other in loneliness and in
sternest conflict. And always, as I have said, these impressions are deepened
by the poet's sense of the un;igeing strength, the enormous repetition of the
sea. The sea fairly writhes and booms through Hawker's verse. Some of his
sea-pictures bring to one the very cold and hiss of the w^aves in their onset."
Western Morning Neius. — " In the heart of this man we feel there was a rich
well of perfect poetry. . . . We find his high-water mark in 'The Quest of
the Sangraal,' and here there are isolated passages that match or surpass all
but the best of Tennyson's Idylls. . . . Had Hawker often written like this
he must have ranked among the foremost ; such lines have a virility, a naked
force, far beyond the reach of mere artistic finish. They reveal what the man
could liave done, had his existence been devoted to poetry alone."
THE LITERATURE O F MO R WENS TO W
FOOTPRINTS OF FORMER
MEN IN FAR CORNWALL
BY ROBERT STEPHEN HAWKER
Edited, with an Introduction, by C. E. Byles, and containing
numerous Illustrations by J. Ley Pethybridge, etc.
Crown 8vo., 5 s. net. \Uniform with ^''Cornish Ballads "'\
Daily Neivs. — " Hawker of Morweristow is a figure unlike any other figure
in our later literature. . . . We think Jie belonged to a simpler time than
ours, to the time when the kings ruled in Cornwall, in rocky courts above
the sea. And his place was with the kings, as a bard or oUave, a poet that
is, with something in liim of the priest, who sang the stories of heroes gone,
and kept the hearts and minds of the king's men by the sheer glamour of his
presence. . . . His ' Black John ' the chronicle of a dwarf of Cornwall, is one
of the finest pieces of biography written in modern times. . . . Almost as
fine is the story of Antony Payne, the Stowe giant. Of the other essays in this
charming book, ' Cruel Coppinger,' the tale of a fierce smuggler, is perhaps
the finest, but all are good. This book, with its careful annotations and its
charming pictures, when it is complemented with the promised issue of the
Poems, will give all lovers of literature a new estimate of this great man."
Daily Telegraph. — " A charming book outside and in. Hawker's sketches
are racy of the soil. . . . Beautifully illustrated by Mr. J. Ley Pethybridge."
Outlook. — "It is delightful to watch the strange contradictions of this
unique and fascinating man, the fierce aboriginal Cornish blood struggling
with his fervid and saintly piety as he turns from some beautiful piece of
Catholic mysticism to narrate with ill-concealed glee how Parminter the
exciseman had his head cut off by one blow of a smuggler's cutlass, or how
Black John let loose a savage bull at an itinerant field preacher. . . . The
human types sketched among the Cornish peasantry are so vivid and natural
and depicted with so much humour and insight that one feels aggrieved that
Hawker never seriously devoted his talents to fiction. . . . ' Black John ' is a
brilliant piece of portraiture, whilst it would be quite impossible to convey an
idea of the grim splendour and imagination of the story of ' Cruel Coppinger. '
But of all the figures presented in this book Hawker himself is after all the
most interesting."
Academy. — "It is admirable prose — strong, simple, broad, with a living
breath in it."
Literary World. — " Reading these sketches, we come upon passages which
Ruskin himself might have written. There is in them a rare rich flavour of
the author's individuality, something of the atmosphere, the colour, the
rugged grandeur of the coast."
iVorld. — * His book is a peculiarly delightful one, full of that indescribable
charm which permeates Scott's novels. . . . The style is inimitable, the
anecdotes are quaint and original, and the illustrations are well chosen and
excellently reproduced ; and a word of praise is due to the tasteful binding."
JOHN LANE, PUBLISHER, LONDON AND NEW YORK
University of California
SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY
405 Hilgard Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90024-1388
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